Hunting

955

I '

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

R. GRANT &. SON,

1 .'.fees Strftf. E 1 N B U R

OF

SPORTS AND PASTIMES

EDITED BY

HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT,
ASSISTED BY ALFRED E. T. WATSON

HUNTING

PRINTED BY

SPOTT1SWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON

HUNTING

BY HIS GRACE
THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT, K.G.

AND

MOWBRAY MORRIS

WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE EARL OF SUFFOLK AND BERKSHIRE
REV. E. W. L. DAVIES, DIGBY COLLINS. AND ALFRED E. T. WATSON

\i^. ^,m^f^ ; 7 \'j^ (

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS by J. STURGESS and J. CHARLTON

FIFTH EDITION

LONDON

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

1889

All rifkts reserved

DEDICA TION

TO

H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES.

BADMINTON: October 1885.

HAVING received permission to dedicate these volumes,
the BADMINTON LIBRARY of SPORTS and PASTIMES,
to His ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES, I
do so feeling that I am dedicating them to one of the
best and keenest sportsmen of our time. I can say, from
personal observation, that there is no man who can
extricate himself from a bustling and pushing crowd of
horsemen, when a fox breaks covert, more dexterously
and quickly than His Royal Highness ; and that when
hounds run hard over a big country, no man can take a
line of his own and live with them better. Also, when
the wind has been blowing hard, often have I seen
His Royal Highness knocking over driven grouse and
partridges and high-rocketing pheasants in first-rate

vi DEDICA TION.

workmanlike style. He is held to be a good yachtsman,
and as Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron is
looked up to by those who love that pleasant and
exhilarating pastime. His encouragement of racing is
well known, and his attendance at the University, Public
School, and other important Matches testifies to his
being, like most English gentlemen, fond of all manly
sports. I consider it a great privilege to be allowed to
dedicate these volumes to so eminent a sportsman as
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and I do
so with sincere feelings of respect and esteem and loyal
devotion.

BEAUFORT.

BADMINTON.

PREFACE.

A FEW LINES only are necessary to explain the object
with which these volumes are put forth. There is no
modern encyclopaedia to which the inexperienced man,
who seeks guidance in the practice of the various British
Sports and Pastimes, can turn for information. Some
books there are on Hunting, some on Racing, some on
Lawn Tennis, some on Fishing, and so on ; but one
Library, or succession of volumes, which treats of the
Sports and Pastimes indulged in by Englishmen and
women is wanting. The Badminton Library is offered
to supply the want. Of the imperfections which must
be found in the execution of such a design we are con-

viii PREFACE.

scious. Experts often differ. But this we may say,
that those who are seeking for knowledge on any of the
subjects dealt with will find the results of many years'
experience written by men who are in every case adepts
at the Sport or Pastime of which they write. It is to
point the way to success to those who are ignorant of
the sciences they aspire to master, and who have no
friend to help or coach them, that these volumes are
written.

To those who have worked hard to place simply and
clearly before the reader that which he will find within,
the best thanks of the Editor are due. That it has been
no slight labour to supervise all that has been written
he must acknowledge ; but it has been a labour of love,
and very much lightened by the courtesy of the Publisher,
by the unflinching, indefatigable assistance of the Sub-
Editor, and by the intelligent and able arrangement
of each subject by the various writers, who are so
thoroughly masters of the subjects of which they treat.
The reward we all hope to reap is that our work may
prove useful to this and future generations.

THE EDITOR.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF HUNTING . i

II. BEASTS OF THE CHASE 36

THE STAG 36

THE FOX AND HIS HABITS .... 62

HARRIERS AND THE HARE 74

BEAGLES HUNTED ON FOOT . ... 83

III. THE STABLE 89

IV. THE KENNEL 109

V. HUNT SERVANTS 135

THE DUTIES OF A HUNTSMAN IN THE FIELD . 135
THE DUTIES OF A WHIPPER-IN . '' . . . 141
THE DUTIES OF A KENNEL HUNTSMAN . . 148
THE DUTIES OF AN EARTH-STOPPER . . . 151
COMPENSATION FOR DAMAGES DONE BY HORSE-
MEN AND BY FOXES 153

ARTIFICIAL FOX EARTHS 156

VI. THE HORSE . . 159

VII. THE RIDER 186

VIII. THE SHIRES 216

a

x CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGB

IX. THE PROVINCES 243

X. HUNTING FROM LONDON 266

XI. THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS 286

APPENDICES.

A. LIST OF MASTERS OF HOUNDS, AND SERVANTS . .321

B. NAMES OF HOUNDS 344

C. HUNTING TERMS 350

D. BIBLIOGRAPHY 354

INDEX 363

ILLUSTRA TIONS.

(EXECUTED BY G. PEARSON.)

ARTIST PACK

IN THE BADMINTON COUNTRY . . . . J. Sturgess Fron.

' A VIEW HOLLOA ' ( Vignette on Title Page) . J. Sturgess

IN THE OLDEN TIME J\ Sturgess . i

CHASED THE Fox AS VIGOROUSLY AS HE DID"! T c .

J. /. Sturgess . 10

THE FRENCH J

QUEEN ELIZABETH J. Sturgess . 13

SKY-BLUE UNIFORMS /. Sturgess . 15

LARKING BACK TO MELTON J. Sturgess . 26

As WE KNOW IT NOW J. Sturgess . 34

HlNDS, ATTENDED BY THEIR ANTLERED LORD . J. Charlton . 38

HEAD DOWN, AND TONGUE OUT . . . J. Charlton . 60

IN SEARCH OF A SUPPER J. Charlton . 63

STEALING AWAY. . . . . . . J. Charlton . 65

HOUNDS WHIMPERING IN FRONT . . . . /. Sturgess . 77

THE FIELD NOT TO PRESS ON THE PACK . . J. Sturgess . 81

A MERRY CRY J. Sturgess . 84

A LITTLE HARD ON THE RUNNERS . . . J. Sturgess . 86

A GOOD DEAL TOO HOT . . . . . J. Sturgess . 90

THE BADMINTON STABLES, ELEVATION 94

,, ,, ,, GROUND PLAN 95

A NATURAL POSITION . . . . . J. Sturgess . 96

THE QUORN KENNELS 114

THE BADMINTON KENNELS 116

xii ILL USTRA TIONS.

ARTIST PAGB

A CONVERTED KENNEL 119

PUPPIES /. Charlton . . 123

BADMINTON PUPPY HOUSES, ELEVATION 125

BRINGING HOUNDS INTO FEEDING ROOM . J. Charlton, . . 126

HOUNDS FEEDING . . . . . J. Charlton . .128

HOUNDS AFTER HAVING BEEN FED . . J. Charlton . . 129

EXERCISING HOUNDS ON THE ROAD . . /. Charlton . .130

A GOOD HOUND (from a picture) 132

A BAD HOUND /. Charlton . .133

THE HUNTSMAN Agnes M. Biddulph 135

THE WHIPPER-IN Agnes M. Biddulph 141

THE KENNEL HUNTSMAN . . . . Agnes M. Biddulph 149

THE EARTH-STOPPER Agnes M. Biddulph 152

CHOOSE BY HIS HEAD J. Sturgess , . 171

A COLLECTION OF BAD POINTS. . . /. Sturgess , . 174

RAPPED IT LIKE THUNDER . . . . J. Slurgess . .182

A BAD MAN ON A GOOD HORSE . . J. Sturgess . . 188

NEVER PART COMPANY J. Sturgess . -199

GIVE YOUR PILOT PLENTY OF ROOM . . J. Sturgess . .211

GET OFF AND WALK J. Sturgess . .215

A GALLOP OVER TWYFORD VALB> . . J. Sturgess . . 226

THE NIAGARA-LIKE RUSH . . \ . J. Sturgess . . 239

A LIBERAL SUPPLY OF GATES . . . J. Sturgess . . 24!

ROUGH AND VARIOUS GROUND . . . J. Sturgess . . 243

TO CREEP WHERE HE MUST NOT FLY . J. Sturgess . . 245

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT NEXT DAY . J. Sturgess . . 253

WHERE JACK THE WHIP IN AMRUSH LAY' J. Sturgess . . 256

SONS OF MACADAM J. Sturgess . . 269

WITH YOU BY TRAIN . . . . J. Slurgess . . 272

THE ESCAPE OF THE OTTER . . . . J. Charlton . 292

OTTERS AT PLAY J. Charlton . . 305

FULL CRY . . . . . . . /. Charlton . .313

CHAPTER I.

OF THE HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF HUNTING.

N that most copious and
useful work, Elaine's
' Encyclopaedia of Rural
Sports,' we are reminded
by judicious illustrations
from both sacred and
profane writers for how long a
time the pursuit of wild ani-
mals, even as an amusement,
has engaged the attention of
man. In these days
of change, alarm, surprise,

B

2 HUNTING.

when the brutality of field-sports is being denounced with so
much eloquence and energy that one cannot but wonder how
the world has remained unconvinced through so many years,
it is, perhaps, idle to speculate how much longer our attention
will be suffered to employ itself on a pastime which so many
wise men have agreed to brand as wanton and debasing. A
sort of melancholy pleasure, therefore, has attended the re-
searches into which our studies have led us. ' Still distant the
day,' about a quarter of a century ago sang Egerton Warburton,
that Homer of the hunting-field,

Still distant the day, yet in ages to come,

When the gorse is uprooted, the foxhound is dumb.

When that race of 'harmless vegetarians,' for whom Mr.
Froude anticipates the mastery of the world, shall have come
into their kingdom, then Nimrod will no doubt be dead as Pan,
and the sports of the field as much an old-world story as the
'bloody laws' of the Roman circus. Those days, however,
are not yet. This pious crusade against sport is, after all, no
new thing. Even in this small matter we are not really refining
on the morals and manners of our fathers.

The man who plants cabbages imitates, too !

That member for County Waterford, who, as he himself has
told us from his place in Parliament, once and only once
joined in the cruel game, and then on the side not of the
hunters but the hunted does not he find his prototype in
Master Harry Sandford, whose valorous defiance of a whole
field of brutal huntsmen brought a horsewhip across his
shoulders, and tears into our ingenuous eyes? Nay, we may
go farther back still ; we may go back to the eleventh century,
and to Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, of whom we read
in Mr. Green's ' History of the English People,' that when
once a hunted hare took refuge under his horse, 'his gentle
voice grew loud as he forbade the huntsmen to stir in the
chase while the creature darted off again to the woods.'

As to speak of hunting, then, in the future may seem but

HISTORY AiVD LITERATURE. 3

a vain thing, so the more excuse may there be for gathering
up into one convenient compass the scattered records of its
ancient and honourable past. That we shall find anything new
to say of it either historically or, if the word may serve, scien-
tifically, we may hardly hope. Though it is certainly true,
as Gervase Markham observed on a somewhat similar occasion,
that 'Time (which is the mother of experience) doth in our
labours show us more new and more nearer ways to our ends
than at the first we conceive/ still, since he discoursed on the
arts of hunting and of ' riding great horses,' so many men have
followed in his steps, that it would be a bold spirit indeed who
should sit down now to such a theme with the assurance that
he had anything fresh to offer either to the knowledge of the
veteran or the curiosity of the tyro. A 'Country Gentleman,'
writing little more than a century ago, found himself constrained
to admit, ' there hath already (by many well-experienced men)
been so much written of this subject that I know not well what
to write, except I should in some sort repeat another man's
tale.' Nevertheless the literature of hunting is of many
kinds. To present in a convenient shape the best, to use the
fashionable phrase of criticism, of all that has been thought
and said on the subject, is the prime purpose of our book. If
so far we shall be held in some sort to have succeeded, we shall
trust to be excused for having added one more to the many
volumes that have been written on a sport which one of its
most honourable chroniclers has declared to be ' most royal for
the stateliness thereof, most artificial for the wisdom and
cunning thereof, and most manly and warlike for the use and
endurance thereof.'

We do not propose to begin, as children love to have their
stories told them, at the very beginning. Writers of all sorts
and conditions, from the gravest, ruve not disdained to record
the pleasures of the chase, and to expound its mysteries. From
Xenophon to Major Whyte-Melville, from Oppian to Mr.
Bromley-Davenport, from Dame Juliana Berners to the curious
individual known to men and columns as ' Ouida,' the list is

4 HUNTING.

indeed a long and varied one. To exhaust it would involve a
demand upon space and time scarce less, if less at all, than
that which would have been required by Mr. Caxton's 'History
of Human Error,' had that immortal though unwritten work
been ever released from the brain of its illustrious projector.
Attractive, therefore, as it might be to turn the eyes of the imagi-
nation backward o'er the 'abyss of time' to Xenophon putting
his precepts into practice among the hares he loved so well to
follow in his quiet Elean home ; or side by side with Synesius,
the squire-bishop of Gyrene, to chase the ostrich or the antelope
through the heavy African sands ; we propose to resist the at-
traction, and to confine ourselves to the history of the chase as
followed and recorded within our own islands ; starting from
the time when it began to be regarded rather as a recreation
than as a means for supplying what Mr. Matthew Arnold has
eloquently styled the 'great first needs of our poor mortality
lodging, food, and raiment.' It is possible that our readers
may be inclined not to regret our self-denial.

Beckford, in the introductory chapter to his ' Thoughts on
Hunting,' observes that Somerville is the only man, so far as
he knows, 'who has written on this subject so as to be under-
stood ; ' an observation supported by the preface to the edition
of 1820, in which it is stated with amazing effrontery or ignor-
ance, that 'till Mr. Beckford's book appeared no work on the
subject of hunting had been published, except an anonymous
publication in 1733, entitled "An Essay on Hunting."' This is
a cruel slur on some most worthy men and amusing writers.
Indeed, the early masters of the 'Noble Art of Venerie,' as
they mostly delight to style their favourite pastime, are in their
way as quaint and entertaining companions as a man not too
steadily serious, to use Johnson's phrase, need wish to pass an
idle hour with. Their style is, no doubt, not exactly Addi-
sonian ; their spelling is somewhat arbitrary ; the entertain-
ment they provide is apt on occasion to take a form of expres-
sion contrary to the modern code of good manners. Let it be

HISTORY A^ 7 D LITERATURE. 5

granted, too, that one would hardly go to them now for instruc-
tion, though as a matter of fact the first principles of the craft
have changed but little since their day ; we may teach dif-
ferently, but we teach pretty much the same doctrine. Still,
they were quite as keen about their business as Somerville,
and, allowing for the inevitable change of years, knew quite
as much about it. And, certainly, they are very much more
amusing than Somerville, if not quite so classical as is that
erudite squire.

' The earliest manuscript on hunting I have met with,' says
Strutt, in his ' Sports and Pastimes of the People of England,'
' is one in the Cotton Library at the British Museum, written at
the commencement of the fourteenth century.' The manu-
script Strutt saw was an English version of a French treatise,
according to a note in Warton's ' History of English Poetry ' at
that time in the possession of a Mr. Farmer, of Tusmor in
Oxfordshire. Its full title was as follows : 'Art de Venerie le
quel Maistre Guillaume Twici venour le Roy d'Angleterre fist
en son temps per Aprandre autres.' This Master William Twici
was huntsman to Edward II. The King, as became a royal
sportsman, had another ' Maister of the Game,' an Englishman,
one John Gyfford, and he it was who made the translation of
the Frenchman's treatise that Strutt saw. A second translation,
or rather a rescript of the first with additions, was made later
by Henry IV.'s huntsman, for the special edification of that
1 imp of fame,' Harry of Monmouth, Prince of Wales. This
may be identical with the ' Maister of the Game,' to be men-
tioned later, but neither Strutt nor ' Cecil' (who, in his 'Records
of the Chase,' quotes largely from it) makes this clear. From
the extracts the latter gives, it is, however, evident that the
writer, whether the Duke of York or another, had carefully
studied his predecessor's work.

Next we come to the treatise popularly ascribed to Dame
Juliana Berners, of pious and immortal, if somewhat apocryphal
memory, and included in the famous ' Boke of St. Albans,' so
called from having been printed at that town in 1486. A cloud

6 HUNTING.

of mystery hung for a long while over the lady and her work,
nor indeed has it ever been wholly cleared away. Her name
has been variously printed as Barnes, Bernes and Berners.
Even her sex was for a time doubtful, for Baker, in his
Chronicles, supposing Julyan (as her Christian name was
originally printed) must needs be a man's name, describes the
worthy prioress as 'a gentleman of excellent gifts, who wrote
certain treatises of Hawking and Hunting.' Nor is her share
in ' The Boke ' known for certain. By earlier authorities she
was held to have been responsible for all three divisions of the
volume, Hawking, Hunting, and Heraldry ; by the latest, Mr.
William Blades (in the preface to his edition of ' The Boke '
published in 1881), she is dismissed with sad contempt as
having ' probably lived at the beginning of the fifteenth century,
and possibly compiled from existing MSS. some rhymes on
hunting.' Yet, as a matter of fact, this is all that a strictly
conscientious historian can permit himself to say about her.
Down to a late period she was popularly supposed to have pre-
sided over Sopwell Nunnery in Hertfordshire, a house founded
about 1140 under the rule of St. Benedict, and subject to the
Abbot of St. Albans ; subject indeed in late years after a fashion
not contemplated, let us hope, by its original founders. This
conjecture, one would have thought, might have rendered her
authorship of a book on field sports, to say the least, somewhat
problematical. But the obstacle was satisfactorily removed by
the further supposition that our dame's youth was passed at
Court, where she would naturally have joined in all fashion-
able amusements. Unfortunately for the history-makers, Mr.
Blades has pointed out that in the lists of the Prioresses of
Sopwell for the fifteenth century no such name as Barnes or
Berners is to be found. He also mentions another curious fact
on the authority of Mr. Halliwell-Phillips, which may possibly
help to explain the mystery, though he does not precisely venture
to say so. It seems that men called Berners were employed
by the sportsmen of that century to wait upon them with relays of
horses second horsemen, in fact and also to feed the hounds.

HISTORY AND LITERATURE. ^

Somewhere between these two comes ' The Maister of the
Game,' not mentioned by Strutt, but a copy of which 'Cecil '
says he had seen in the possession of a Mr. Richard Dansey,
of Herefordshire. He supposes it to have been written by
Edmund de Langley, Duke of York, son of Edward III., who
was noted among his contemporaries for his delight and skill in
hunting and hawking, and was made by his father, as Harding
tells us in his Chronicle,

Maister of the mewhouse, and of hawkes feire,
Of his Venerie, and maister of his game.

From the extracts quoted by ' Cecil ' it seems to be superior in
point of style to Twici's work, and also more exhaustive and
practical, but to those extracts our knowledge is confined.

In the following century our bibliography appears to have
been enriched by only two writers, George Turberville, and Sir
Thomas Cockaine. Of the latter history is silent, but Turber-
ville, or Tuberville, was a personage of some note, a poet and
diplomatist, as well as a sportsman. He was educated at
Winchester, and at New College, of which he was a Fellow. He
went to Russia as secretary to Randolph, Elizabeth's famous
ambassador, and published a poetical description of ih'at
country, besides other volumes of verse, songs, sonnets, and
translations. Anthony Wood in his ' Athenae Oxonienses ' de-
scribes him as a most accomplished gentleman, and ' much
admired for his excellencies in the art of poetry.'

As far as we have got hitherto, there is certainly some colour
for Beckford's contemptuous dismissal of all writers before
Somerville. It is certainly not easy to gather from these books
any very precise idea of the way our forefathers took their
pleasure in the field. Turberville's and Cockaine's the latter
but a small pamphlet are worth looking at chiefly for the
quaintness of the woodcuts, and also of their language. Twici
busies himself chiefly with the different notes to be sounded on
the horn, according to the game being hunted and the state of
the chase ; but he also gives the names of the various beasts

8 HUNTING.

that are legitimate objects of sport, and some directions for
blooding the hounds and breaking up the game, the huntsman
being particularly warned against giving any part of the fox to
the hounds, 'for it is not good for them.' Dame Juliana, or
whoever is to be credited with the book that goes under her
name, has practically done little more than put into doggrel
rhyme the precepts of Twici and his English translator, though
the rhymester quotes the legendary authority of Six Tristram,
who seems to have been regarded in those days as the par-
ticular patron of huntsmen ; we find Cockaine, for example,
gravely asserting that ' it hath been long received for a truth
that Sir Tristram, one of King Arthure's knights, was the first
writer and as it were founder of the honourable and delightful
sport of hunting.' They have their own interest, all these
works, but the interest is one which appeals rather to the anti-
quarian than the sportsman. They tell the latter little, and it is
hard to imagine that they can have told their own contem-
poraries very much.

Our knowledge of what we may call the dark ages of hunt-
ing is derived mainly from the indefatigable Strutt, who has, if
we may employ a sporting metaphor, drawn all sorts of coverts
which up to that time had been undisturbed, and but for him had
very likely remained so to this day. It is true that what he has
contrived to unearth is not very much, but it is something ; it
gives us some idea of the estimation in which hunting was held
by our remote ancestors, if not very much of the way in which
it was pursued. He found, for example, that Alfred the Great,
that pious and learned king, was a ' most expert and active
hunter, and excelled in all the branches of that most noble art,
to which he applied with incessant labour and amazing success.'
While the Danes ruled in England the sport began to be fenced
about with certain restrictions tending to confine it to the
upper classes, though Canute, who also prohibited all hunting
and hawking on the Sabbath, while rigorously forbidding all
trespass on the royal hunting grounds, allowed each man to dis-
port himself at will on his own. Any violation of these restric-

HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 9

lions was severely punished, in certain cases with death.
These game-laws were in existence at any rate down to the
time of John, and lost, we may be sure, none of their rigour
under the Norman rule. Hunting was then pre-eminently a
royal pastime. Even Edward the Confessor, who abhorred all
secular amusements, made an exception in favour of the chase
both with hound and hawk. He took the greatest delight, says
Strutt, quoting William of Malmesbury, ' to follow a pack of
swift hounds in pursuit of game, and to cheer them with his
voice.' Everyone knows the cruel measures taken by the
Conqueror to make and stock the royal hunting-grounds, an
example followed, though in a less brutal degree, by his son
Henry, who made the great park at Woodstock, and walled it
round with seven miles of stone ; wherein after him his grand-
son, the first of our Plantagenet kings, kept, if history speak
truth, other game than stag and boar. Gradually the great
nobles followed suit. Henry, Earl of Warwick, made a park at
Wedgenoke, and others began to inclose ground in various
parts of the country, without much regard to the rights of the
commons. A contemporary writer, John of Salisbury, gives a
gloomy picture of the height to which the luling passion had
grown, and of the hardships to which the lower classes were
subject for their rulers' pleasure. ' In our time,' he says, ' hunt-
ing and hawking are esteemed the most honourable employ-
ments and most excellent virtues by our nobility, and they
think it the height of worldly felicity to spend the whole of
their time in these diversions ; accordingly they prepare for
them with more solicitude, expense, and parade, than they do for
war; and pursue the wild beasts with greater fury than they do
the enemies of their country. By constantly following this way
of life they lose much of their humanity, and become as savage
nearly as the very beasts they hunt. Husbandmen, with their
harmless herds and flocks, are driven from their well-cultivated
fields, their meadows and their pastures, that wild beasts may
range in them without interruption.' And he then gives the
following piece of advice to all whom it may concern : ' If one

10

HUNTING.

of these great and merciless hunters shall pass by your habita-
tion, bring forth hastily all the refreshment you have in your
house, or that you can readily buy or borrow from your neigh-
bours ; that you may not be involved in ruin, or even accused
of treason.' This refreshing practice is, happily, still much
in vogue, though not from the same interested motives. Per-
haps the worthy chronicler did not disdain a little to over-
colour his picture, after the fashion of sundry good souls of
our own day. History, at any rate, hardly bears out the com-

' Chased the fox as vigorously as he did the French.'

pbint that these 'di-
versions ' weakened
the Englishman's
arm for war. When
Edward III., for ex-
ample, was engaged
in his French wars, he had always with him in the field sixty
couple of stag-hounds and as many harriers, with which he
diverted himself when not more sternly engaged a practice
followed, we may add, though in less royal fashion, by a still
greater conqueror than Edward, for throughout the Peninsula
campaign Wellington always kept a pack of hounds at head-
quarters, and chased the foxes quite as vigorously and suc-
cessfully as he did the French. But there is no doubt that

HISTORY AND .LITERATURE. II

hunting, as then enjoyed by the upper classes, entailed much
suffering and oppression on the lower. The clergy were par-
ticular offenders. By a charter of Henry III. archbishops and
bishops were allowed, when travelling through the royal forests,
on the King's service, to kill two deer under certain conditions.
In time their permission came to be construed more largely,
and the priest grew as mighty a hunter as the baron. Chaucer
has many a hit at this unclerical practice. In the Prologue to
his ' Canterbury Tales ' the monk is described as

A fayre for the maistrie,
An outrider that loved venerie ;
A manly man to bell an abbot able.
Full many a deinte hors hadde he in stable.

Therefore he was a prickasoure a right :
Greihoundes he hadde as swift as foul of flight :
Of pricking and of hunting for the hare
Was all his lust, for no cost wolde he spare.

Again, in the ' Ploughman's Tale,' if that be truly Chaucer's,
which is specially directed against the luxury and loose living of
the clergy, it is laid among the monk's malpractices that he win

ride on courses as a knight
With hawkis and with houndis eke,

and that,

He mote go hunte with dogge and bich
And blowen his home and cryin Hey.

Of a certain Walter, bishop of Rochester in the thirteenth
century, Strutt tells us that 'he was an excellent hunter, and
so fond of the sport that at the age of fourscore he made
hunting his sole employment, to the total neglect of the duties
of his office.' Another occupant of the episcopal bench,
Reginald Brian, bishop of Worcester, we find writing, in the
following century, to his brother, bishop of St. Davids, to
remind him of a promised gift of some hounds. His heart
languishes, he says, for their arrival : 'let them come then, oh!

ra HUNTING.

reverend father ! without delay ; let my woods re-echo with
the music of their cry and the cheerful notes of the horn, and
let the walls of mv palace be decorated with the trophies of the
chase ! ' Again, William de Clowne, Abbot of St. Mary's in
Leicestershire, was so famous a hunter and so renowned for
his breed of hounds, that he was granted, by royal charter, the
privilege of holding an annual fair or market for their sale.
From the earliest times, indeed, it seems Churchmen were
wont to be particular sinners in this respect, for Mi. Froude
tells us that Wulsig and Walnoth, Abbots of the great monas-
tery of St. Albans in the ninth century, were notorious for
neglecting their duties for the society of hound and hawk, as
well as for other society even less convenient for an abbot.
Henry II. and Richard II. both in their times tried to put a
stop to such scandals, but probably more with a view to thwart
the power and ambition of the priesthood than from any
strictly moral motive. At any rate neither they nor their
successors seem to have been able to effect much. In the
reign of Henry VI. the clergy are particularly warned against
' hawkynge, huntynge, and dawnsynge ; ' and at the time of the
English Reformation the see of Norwich alone owned thirteen
parks well stocked with game of every kind !

The presence of ladies in the hunting-field dates from very
early times. At first probably they were content to be spec-
tators only, watching the sport from wooden stands erected for
the purpose, beneath which the game was driven. But they
evidently soon aspired to a more active part. From an illus
trated manuscript of the fourteenth century, some cuts from
which are given by Strutt, we learn that ladies took the field
on horseback, and bestrode their horses, moreover, after the
fashion of men ! How they disposed of the garments proper
to their sex, which they apparently still retained, does not seem
very clear. The costume now in vogue among Amazons did
not apparently come into use till three centuries later, and then
only partially. Strutt quotes a writer of that time to the effect
that the ladies of Bury in Suffolk, ' that used hawking and hunting,

HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 13

were once in a great vaine of wearing breeches,' whence arose,
he says, many severe and ludicrous sarcasms. It was urged,
on the side of the ladies, that in case of accident decency was
thus better preserved ; but to this the answer was, ' that such
accidents ought to be prevented in a manner more consistent
with the delicacy of the sex, that is, by refraining from such
dangerous recreations ' and possibly, as Goldsmith's connois-
seur observed of a different matter, there is much to be said
on both sides. Queen Elizabeth was a notable huntress.
Elaine, in his ' Encyclopaedia of Rural Sports,' quotes an

' Queen Elizabeth was a notable huntress.'

account from an eye-witness of her Majesty's prowess at
Kenilworth during her magnificent entertainment by Leicester
in 1575 ; and towards the end of her long life, when at
Oatlands, she is described in a contemporary letter as still
' well and excellently disposed to hunting, for every second day
she is on horseback and continues the sport long.' Though
Lord Tennyson has called her the 'man-minded offspring' of
her father, it does not appear that she was sufficiently mascu-
line to adopt the seat in vogue among her sex in the fourteenth
century. According to Elaine that fashion was put out of court

14 HUNTING.

in England by Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II., who was
the first to ride in the modern manner ; though in Portugal, if
Sir Nathaniel Wraxall may be trusted, the earlier style still pre-
vailed in the latter half of the last century. If this were so, we
must suppose that the ' Bury ladies ' aped the sterner sex only
in their garb and not in their seat ; that, in fact, they draped
themselves much as the Dianas of our own time, save that they
did not consult decorum to the extent of a skirt. From a
passage in Pope's correspondence we learn that in his time
hunting was high in fashion among the Court ladies, though in
one instance, at any rate, it seems to have been a fashion
followed, like so many other fashions, less from inclination
than etiquette. 'I met the Prince,' he writes to some anony-
mous fair, 'with all his ladies on horseback coming from
hunting. Mrs. B and Mrs. L took me into protec-
tion (contrary to the laws against harbouring Papists), and gave
me a dinner with something I liked better, an opportunity of

conversation with Mrs. H . We all agreed that the life of

a Maid of Honour was of all things the most miserable ; and
wished that every woman who envied it had a specimen of it.
To eat Westphalia ham in a morning, ride over hedges and
ditches on borrowed hacks, come home in the heat of the day
with a fever and (what is worse a hundred times) with a red
mark in the forehead from an uneasy hat ; all this may qualify
them to make excellent wives for fox- hunters, and bear abun-
dance of ruddy-complexioned children.' The most renowned
Diana of that century seems to have been Lady Salisbury, who
kept a pack of dwarf foxhounds at Hatfield, and went a-hunting
in great state, her servants magnificent in sky-blue uniforms,
black collars, lappels, and jockey-caps. In ths ' Sporting
Magazine' for March 1795, there is an account of her triumphs
in a great run of two hours and a half : ' Out of a field of
fourscore,' says her enthusiastic chronicler, ' her ladyship soon
gave honest Daniel the go-by ; pressed Mr. Hale neck-and-
neck, soon blowed the whipper-in, and continued, indeed,
throughout the whole of the chase to be nearest the brush.'

HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 15

A worthy match to her would have been that stout old French
lady of whom Mr. Vyner tells us in his 'Notitia Venatica;'
Dame Marie Cecile Charlotte de Lauretan, Baronne de Dracek.
When she lived is not made precisely clear, but Mr. Vyner saw
her picture in 1839 when he visited the old castle in which she
used to hold her state, about sixteen miles from Calais. She
was painted on her favourite grey horse, dressed in a green
coat, with a gold waist-belt. Her hair was powdered and

' Magnificent in sky-blue uniforms.'

arranged in large curls, and her hat was high crowded with a
gold band. Her nether woman was clad in boots and leather
breeches, and she rode as men do. Eight hunters were in her
stable, and in her bedroom she kept her favourite guns and
saddles. She hunted three days a week, and had a dinner party
on every hunting day. More than 670 wolves are said to have
fallen by her hand ; and when sterner game was not to be had,

?6 HUNTING.

she did not disdain the badger or the fox. She died of apoplexy
in her own house at seventy-five years of age. There was
a certain Miss Draper also, appropriately christened Diana,
the daughter of a famous old Yorkshire squire, who won
great praise in her time. She was wont to assist her father
in the field, 'cheering the hounds with her voice.' It is
also ncted of her that she 'died at York in a good old age,
and, what was more wonderful to many sportsmen who dared
not follow her, she died with whole bones in her bed.' Her
father was quite 'a character,' and as he must be the earliest
of the old fox-hunters of whom we have any note, if it be true,
as the 'Druid' says, in 'Scott and Sebright,' that he com-
menced operation in 1726, the following account of him, from
'The Hunting Directory,' may be interesting :

In the old, but now ruinous, mansion of Berwick Hall, in the
East Riding of Yorkshire, once lived the well-known William
Draper, Esq., who bred, fed, and hunted the staunchest pack of
foxhounds in Europe. Upon an income of only yoo/. he brought
up creditably eleven sons and daughters ; kept a stable of excellent
foxhounds, besides a carriage with horses suitable for the conveni-
ence of my lady and her daughters. He lived in the old honest
style of his country, killing every month a good ox of his own
feeding, and priding himself on maintaining a substantial table, but
with no foreign kickshaws. His general apparel was a long, dark
drab hunting-coat, a belt round his waist, and a strong velvet
cap on his head. In his humour he was very facetious, always
having some pleasant story, both in the field and in the hall, so
that his company was much sought after by persons of good con-
dition, and which was of great use to him in the advancement of
his children. His stables and kennels were kept in such order,
that sportsmen observed them as schools for huntsmen and grooms,
who were glad to come there without wages merely to learn their
business. When they had obtained proper instruction he then
recommended them to other gentlemen, who wished for no better
character than Squire Draper's recommendation. He was always
up during the hunting season at four in the morning, mounted on
one of his nags at five, himself bringing forth his hounds, who
knew every note of their old master's voice. In the field he rode
with judgment, avoiding what was unnecessary, and helping his

HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 17

hounds when they were at fault. After the fatigues of the chy,
which were generally crowned with the brushes of a brace of foxes,
he entertained those who would return with him, and which was
sometimes thirty miles' distance, with old English hospitality.
Good old October was the liquor drunk ; and his first fox-hunting
toast was All the brushes in Christendom. At the age of eighty-
years this gentleman died as he chiefly lived, for he died on horse-
back. As he was going to give some instructions to a friend who
was rearing up a pack of foxhounds, he was seized with a fit, and
dropping from his old favourite pony, he expired ! There was no
man, rich or poor, in his neighbourhood but lamented his death,
and the foxes were the only things that had occasion to be glad
Squire Draper was no more.

Though hunting was, as we have seen, in its early days the
exclusive amusement of the noble classes, an exception was
always made in favour of the citizens of London from almost
immemorial times. Strutt quotes a charter granted to them by
Henry I. which contains the following clause : ' The citizens
of London may have chases, and hunt as well, and as fully, as
their ancestors have had ; that is to say, in the Chiltre, in
Middlesex and Surrey.' According to ' Cecil,' the Lord Mayor
himself kept hounds from a time vaguely specified as ' many
centuries ago ; ' and Lincoln's Inn Fields, St. James's, and
May Fair were the favourite places of meeting. The privi-
leges granted by Henry were confirmed by all succeeding
kings. In the reign of George I. we find 'riding on horse-
back and hunting with my Lord Mayor's hounds when the
common- hunt goes out,' reckoned by Strype among the
favourite amusements of Londoners. This 'common-hunt'
was, no doubt, the origin of that ' Epping Hunt ' which has
been the butt of so many wits from the time of D'Urfey
down to our own. In the ' Sporting Magazine ' for 1795 there
is an account of a run with the Lord Mayor's hounds, de-
signed to show how unfounded were the jests cut at the good
citizens' expense, and that the sport was a serious and a
legitimate business. A stag is turned out, and it is particularly
noted that his antlers had been sawn off, a practice which has

c

1 8 HUNTING.

long been common in the Royal Hunt, but was then an innova-
tion. This gallant beast was taken in ' Burleigh's Pond,' as we
see in an accompanying engraving, but reserved for a future
occasion. So far all may have been well enough, but the
chronicler, unfortunately for his cause, is a little too minute in
his details. Not only were booths for refreshment erected at
the place of meeting, but, after the proper sport of the day was
over, a ' genteel marquee ' was pitched, appropriately enough
near an inn known as 'The Bald-Faced Stag,' wherein a lady,
'elegantly dressed 'in a riding-habit, and with 'a bewitching
face and fascinating address,' presided over sundry E.O. tables.
To turn again to our bibliography, in the seventeenth
century we find a great improvement. Gervase Markham's
' Country Contentments,' and Richard Blome's ' Gentleman's
Recreation,' are not only intelligible enough for any reader, but
also extremely useful and practical ; so that Beckford's saying is
itself intelligible only on the supposition that he was unaware
of their existence. Markham was the son of a Nottinghamshire
squire, and a man of many pursuits and accomplishments. He
was a soldier, a poet, and a playwright, as well as a sportsman
and farmer. It was in his latter capacities, however, that he won
most fame. His treatises on horsemanship and sport were so
highly esteemed in his time that, according to a document in
Stationers' Hall, he bound himself by an agreement with his
publishers to write no more, lest the copyrights they already
held should be injured by further publications. Of Blome, or
Bloome, we know less. There is a man of that name very roughly
handled in the ' Athense Oxonienses ' for pirating an edition
of Bareham's ' Display of Heraldry.' He is described by Wood
as ' a kind of arms painter (originally a ruler of paper, and now
a scribbler of books), who hath since practised for divers years
progging tricks in employing necessitous persons to write in
several arts, and to get contributions of noblemen to promote
the work.' Blome's book was certainly published by sub-
scription, one of the editions containing the coats-of-arms of
the various subscribers. It also includes a treatise on heraldry,

HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 19

as well as a disquisition on the arts and sciences, so that we
may reasonably conclude that more than one hand went to its
composition. Still, despite Wood's objurgations, the book is
really both a curious and valuable one, in the department of
field-sports at any rate, whatever may have been Blome's precise
share in it. It contains, moreover, a number of plates, which
are not only good specimens of the engraving of the day, but
useful as showing the costume in which our fathers took the
field. On the whole it may be said of all our early works on
sport to be the one which gives the fullest and most practical
information on the subject. Markham is practical, tco, but he
occupies himself more with the breeding, training, and manage-
ment of horses and hounds, than with the actual pursuit of the
game, though he does not altogether neglect that. Blome is
naturally, moreover, less archaic in his language and style than
the elder writer, about whom still hangs that flavour of quaint-
ness which belonged to English prose down to the age of
Dryden. Hunting, for example, he defines as ' a curious search
or conquest of one beast over another, pursued by a natural!
instinct of enmitie, and accomplished by the diversities and
distinctions of smells onelie, wherein nature equallie deviding
her cunning giveth both to the offender and offended strange
knowledge both of offence and safety.' He writes of ' high-
way dogges,' hounds, that is to say, which will carry the scent
along a high road ; of ' dogges of nimble composure,' meaning
quick and well-made ; and of certain others being ' the most
principall best to compose your kennell off.' In Blome's book
of course we get much less of this style of writing, though
he, too, can amuse as well as instruct us ; by warning, for ex-
ample, those who go forth to hunt the hare, that it is 'a very
melancholy beast,' and therefore ' very fearful and crafty.'

First in the next century comes that anonymous author of
that ' Essay on Hunting ' which Beckford's editor declares, as
we have seen, to have been the only book written on the subject
prior to the famous letters. It was published in 1773 and is
said by the same authority to be full of 'good sense and

ca

20 HUNTING.

practical knowledge.' Whether this statement is more in
accordance with fact than the other we cannot say, as we must
confess to have never met with a copy. Our only knowledge
of it is derived from the ' Druid,' who was more fortunate than
we. The author, as he tells us in ' Silk and Scarlet,' ' pre-
sumes on pardon from the loquacious world, if among so many
treatises, vindications, replies, journals, craftsmen, hyp-doctors,
and lay preachers, the press be borrowed a day or two for a plain
essay on the innocent recreation of us country squires.' The
hunting of the hare was clearly the recreation nearest the heart
of this particular squire. In the 'Druid's' words, 'a fox, it is
true, is curled up at the end of the essay ; but he runs hare
throughout.' Still more candid is the next writer, a Mr.
Gardiner, author of 'The Art and the Pleasures of Hare Hunting,
in six letters to a Person of Quality,' who evidently thinks the
' triumph of the timid hare ' is the only triumph worthy of a true
sportsman. Three years later we get into a wider field with
* The Country Gentleman's Companion,' compiled by 'a Country
Gentleman from his own Experiences ; ' a sensible little book,
owing a great deal, of course, to its predecessors, despite the
author's prefatory disclaimer, nor always acknowledging its
debts, but yet with a good deal to say for itself, especially on the
breeding and management of hounds, and the general economy
of the kennel. Between the anonymous ' Essay on Hunting '
and these two works comes Somerville's ' Chase,' which most
people interested in the subject have probably read once at
least in their lives ; if they have never studied the original, they
must at any rate have got a very fair idea of it from Beckford's
book, in which from first to last the most important part of the
poem is practically reprinted. Beckford himself of course marks
an era not only in the literature but in the history of hunting.
Whatever may have been the real value of the writers before
him, it is certain that to all who have come after him he has
been a ' guide, philosopher, and friend.' It is scarcely too
much to say that since his ' Thoughts upon Hunting ' were first
printed in 1781 there has been no writer who has gone at all

HISTORY AND LITERATURE. l\

seriously into the science and economy of the subject who has not
more or less made use of their amusing pages. For they are as
amusing as sensible. Even those who regard the subject itself
with indifference or dislike could not but allow on trial that
Beckford is at least never tedious or dull, for all his own modest
declaration that ' fox-hunting, however lively and animating it
may be in the field, is but a dull dry subject to write upon.'
He has generally some witty story or shrewd saying at hand to
point his moral, and his style is quite a model for such a work.
No man ever so happily illustrated Johnson's saying of the
importance of being able to write trifles with dignity. At the
same time he is never pompous or pedantic, any more than he
is slovenly or vulgar. Beckford was in fact a remarkably well-
read and cultivated man, one of the very best specimens of the
English country squire the last century affords us a striking
antithesis, indeed, to that other fox-hunting squire whom
Fielding drew, more typical of the breed, perhaps, than Beckford.
Cousin to that famous Lord Mayor, John Wilkes's champion,
patron that was to have been of poor Chatterton, and fathei
to the great lord of Fonthill, our author inherited from his father
a comfortable estate in Dorsetshire which enabled him to- in-
dulge his tastes both for letters and sport. His ' Familiar Letters
from Italy to a Friend in England,' the record of a continental
tour made just before the outbreak of the French Revolution,
are most agreeable reading, the work of a man well versed in
ancient and modern literature, and of good taste and perception.
A contemporary writer has thus pithily summed him up : 'Never
had fox or hare the honour of being chased to death by so
accomplished a huntsman ; never was huntsman's dinner graced
by such urbanity and wit. He would bag a fox in Greek, find
a hare in Latin, inspect his kennels in Italian, and direct the
economy of his stables in exquisite French.' '

With Beckford's book our retrospect of the literature of
hunting may fitly close. He clearly marks the end of the old

1 We are indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Robert Harrison, Librarian of
the London Library, for these particulars of Beckford's accomplishments.

22 HUNTING.

school and the beginning of the new. With the works of the
latter, both serious and fictitious, from Delme Radcliffe and
4 Nimrod,' down to ' Scrutator ' and ' Cecil,' Surtees, John
Mills and Whyte-Melville, we may suppose our readers to
be well enough acquainted ; and as we shall ourselves have
many occasions to consult them in the course of the following
pages, it would be superfluous to spend further time over them
here.

When hunting began to be regarded as an organised pastime
with laws and arts of its own, a list was drawn up of the beasts
a true sportsman might legitimately occupy himself in chasing.
It was, of course, a pretty large one, and was divided by Twici into
three classes. The first contains four, distinguished as ' beasts
for hunting,' the hare, the hart, the wolf, and the wild boar ;
the second five, known as ' beasts for the chase,' the buck, the
doe, the fox, the martin, and the roe ; in the third come the
grey or badger, the wild cat, and the otter, mentioned as afford-
ing ' greate dysporte ' to the huntsman, but evidently regarded
as legitimate game only in default of something better. By
later writers the 'beasts of the chase' were subdivided into two
further classes. In the first were the buck, the doe, the bear,
the rein-deer, the elk and spytard, a hart of one hundred years
old ; in the second, which obviously includes also the original
third class, the fulimart, the fitchat or fitcb, the cat, the badger,
the fox, the weasel, the martin, the squirrel, the white rat, the
otter, the stoat, and the pole-cat. The first division was known
as beasts 'of sweet flight,' to distinguish it from the others
who were classed as beasts of 'stinking flight;' a distinction
whi'ch Strutt interprets as referring to the scent the latter give
when chased ; but inasmuch as the former must certainly have
supplied a similar means of pursuit, it most probably was de-
signed to distinguish the estimation in which the two classes of
game were held. It is at any rate clear that our ancestors,
when they went a-hunting, were pretty much of a mind with
the accommodating witness provided for one of Mr. Jaggers's
clients, and were prepared ' in a general way for anythink.'

HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 23

As our business, however, lies with the game of to-day, we
need not stay to consider in what manner the capture of the
weasel or the pole-cat was encompassed, or even of the wolf or
the boar. As the forest gradually disappeared, and land came
more and more under cultivation, the greater part of these beasts
either vanished altogether or became so infrequent as to drop
out of the sportsman's list and take their place on the roll of
vermin. Even Twici practically confines himself to the stag,
the fox, and the hare, and we may be well content to follow
Twici's example.

Of these, the stag of course held the first place, from his
size, swiftness, and courage, as well as from the uses to which
he could be put after death in supplying both the inner and
the outer necessities of man. ' Of the Stagge,' says Markham,
' which is the most princelie and roiel Chase of all Chases, and
for whom indeed this Art of Hunting was first found out and
invented, he is of all beasts the goodliest, statelyest, and most
manly.' But though the supreme qualities of the stag were
thus duly acknowledged, the triumph over the hare seems from
very early times to have been considered the prime test of a
huntsman's quality. ' We will begin with the hare,' says Twici.
' Why, sir, will you begin with the hare, rather than with any
other beast ? ' 'I will tell you. Because she is the most mar-
vellous beast which is en this earth.' The study of natural history
was then but in its infancy, and some of the properties which
struck King Edward's ' Master of the Game ' with such astonish-
ment will hardly surprise us very much to-day. Among other
marvels we are told that ' at one time it is male, and at another
lime it is female,' but whether this diversity of sex is supposed
to belong to the individual hare, or to be a general characteristic
of the species, is not clear. Markham thought hare-hunting
the ' freest, readiest and most enduring pastime ; ' and Blome
follows suit, styling it an art ' full of subtlety and craft, and
possessed of divers delights and varieties, which other chases
do not afford,' though he adds, ' whosoever hath hunted one
and the same hare twice, and doth not kill her the third time.

24 HUNTING.

deserves not the name of a huntsman, for generally they use
the same sleights, doublings and crossings.' In Shakespeare's
immortal stanzas, of the three beasts which the love-sick
goddess advises her flinty-hearted boy to ' uncouple at : '

the timorous flying hare,
Or at the fox which lives by subtlety,
Or at the roe which no encounter dare,

the first is evidently the chase the poet knew best, though from
his compassionate epithets he seems, like a later bard, to have
thought it but a ' poor triumph.' Thomson, as we know, held
this opinion, and urged the ' sylvan youth ' of Britain, since
such noble prey as ' the roused-up lion,' or the 'grim wolf,' or
the ' blinded boar,' are not for them, to direct their energies
against the fox.

Your sportive fury, pitiless, to pout
Loose on the nightly robber of the fold :
Him, from his craggy winding haunts unearth'd,
Let all the thunder of the chase pursue.
Throw the broad ditch behind you ; o'er the hedge
High bound, resistless ; nor the deep morass
Refuse, but through the shaking wilderness
Pick your nice way ; into the perilous flood
Bear fearless, of the raging instinct full ;
And as you ride the torrent, to the banks
Your triumph sound sonorous, running round,
From rock to rock, in circling echoes toss'd ;
Then scale the mountains to their woody tops ;
Rush down the dangerous steep ; and o'er the lawn
In fancy swallowing up the space between,
Pour all your speed into the rapid game ;
For happy he who tops the wheeling chase ;
Has every maze evolved, and every guile
Disclosed ; who knows the merits of the pack \
Who saw the villain seized, and dying hard,
Without complaint, though by a hundred mouths
Relentless torn : O glorious he, beyond
His daring peers !

HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 25

Beckford, too, was evidently of the same mind with
Thomson. 'By inclination,' he says, 'I was never a hare-
hunter. I followed this diversion more for air and exercise
than for amusement ; and if I could have persuaded myself to
ride on the turnpike-road to the three-mile stone, and back
again, I should have thought I had no need of a pack of
harriers.' He adds, however, with his wonted respect for every
legitimate form of hunting, that he speaks only of the country
where he lives, where ' the hare-hunting is so bad, that, did you
know it, your wonder would be how I could have persevered in
it so long, not that I should forsake it now.' On the other
hand, John Smallman Gardiner, Gent., whose letters have been
already mentioned, has scarce words enough to express his
admiration of the hare as an object of chase, and his contempt
for the fox. He allows, indeed, that it ' would be imprudent to
declaim against other people's diversions to enhance the satis-
faction found in mine ; ' yet he does declaim, and pretty
vigorously, though his objections seem to be much of a nature
with those which a certain Etonian of a past generation found
against football, that it was too rough and violent to take rank
as a ' gentlemanly ' game ! This is what he says : ' A lover of
hunting almost every man is, or would be thought ; but twenty
in the field after an hare find more delight and sincere enjoy-
ment than one in twenty in a fox-chase, the former consisting
of an endless variety of accidental delights, the latter little more
than hard riding, the pleasure of clearing some dangerous leap,
the pride of bestriding the best nag, and showing somewhat of
the bold horseman ; and (equal to anything) of being first in at
the death, after a chase frequently from county to county, and
perhaps above half the way out of sight or hearing of the
hounds. So that, but for the name of fox hunting, a man
might as well mount at his stable-door, and determine to gallop
twenty miles an end into another county.' This is a view of
fox-hunting that has been accepted since Mr. Gardiner's day
by many less inclined to go along with him in his objections to
the hard riding part of it, if there be any truth in the saying

26

HUNTING.

attributed to a noted first-flight man of our grandsires' time, who,
' larking ' with some brother spirits back to Melton after a poor
day's sport, exclaimed in a burst of rapture, ' What fun we

might have, if it wasn't for these d d hounds ! '

It is clear that till about the middle of the last century fox-
hunting by no means held the pride of place amongst sportsmen
that it now holds. Despite the fox's admission into the list of
beasts of chase, there can be no doubt that then and for long

'Larking with some brother spirits back to Melton.'

after he was looked on as a marauder, whose death was to be
encouraged by any means, fair or foul. The well-known
passage in Chaucer's 'Nun's Tale,' revealing the treacherous
abduction of poor Chanticleer, may be cited as a case in point,
where, by the way, the fox is called ' Dan Russet ' from his red
or russet colour. Sterner evidence still is the speech of Oliver
St. John, Solicitor-General, against Strafford before the House
of Lords in 1641. 'It is true,' he said, as reported by

HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 27

Clarendon, ' that we give law to hares and deer because they
are Beasts of Chase ; but it was never accounted either cruelty,
or foul play, to knock foxes and wolves on the head as they
can be found, because they are beasts of prey.' Walter Scott,
too, it will be remembered, puts the same sentiment in the
mouth of Roderick Dhu ;

but, though the beast of game
The privelege of chase may claim,
Though space and law the stag we lend
Ere hound we slip, or bow we bend,
Who ever reck'd where, how, or when,
The prowling fox was trapp'd or slain !

Tt is true, Twici gives directions for hunting him 'above
ground,' which shows that he was then beginning to be re-
garded as something better, at least, than a badger ; but much
later writers than Twici evidently regard his chase, though
in default of a better it may yield sport enough, as not com-
parable to that of the stag or the hare. Markham, for ex-
ample, who, by the way, does class poor Reynard with the
badger, says of both that they ' are chases of a great deal lesse
use or cunning than anie of the former,' though his reasons ' be-
cause they are of much hotter scent, and indeed very few dogges
but will hunt them with all egernesse,' may strike us as not
very cogent. Blome considers the chase of the fox ' not so full
of diversity as the hare,' and the ' Country Gentlermn ' agrees
both with Blome and Markham. He is always mentioned as
'the craftiest beast that is,' trusting less in his 'strength of body
or swiftness of legs ' than in his cunning. Turberville, indeed,
gives some very remarkable instances of his shifts to escape
from his pursuers, which the verbal decorum of our age will not
allow us here to reproduce. But perhaps the most striking
illustration of our ancestors' ideas on the subject of fox-hunting
is to be found in Cockaine, who tells us that ' every huntsman
his part is to hew him, or backe him into the covert again when
he offereth to breake the same.' This murderous piece of
advice may perhaps be partly condoned by the fact that in those

23 HUNTING.

days the fox seems generally to have been hunted on foot ;
even in Blome's time it appears from the illustrations to his book
that the huntsman proper did not put his trust in the legs of a
horse.

A former Lord Wilton in his ' Sports and Pursuits of the
English,' says it was not till 1750 that hounds were entered
solely to fox. But in his famous ' Quarterly ' article on ' The
Chase,' ' Nimrod ' quotes a letter written to him by Lord
Arundel, from which it appears that one of his lordship's
ancestors kept a pack at the close of the previous century.
They hunted both in Wiltshire and Hampshire, and remained
in the family till 1782, when they were sold to ' the great Mr.
Meynell,' the real father of the modern English chase. There
must, however, have been another pack at least coeval with
this, for some few years ago there was in the ' Field ' an
engraving of a hunting-horn in the possession of the then
master of the Cheshire hounds, on which was the following
inscription : 'Thomas Boothby, Esq., Tooley Park, Leicester.
With this horn he hunted the first pack of fox-hounds then in
England 55 years: born 1677, died 1752.' Another authority
gives 1730 for the year when Thomas Fownes, of Stepleton in
Dorsetshire, kept a regular pack of fox-hounds, which were
afterwards sold to Mr. Bowes, of Yorkshire. It is, however, very
possible that Lord Wilton's date may be the correct one, for
there is nothing to show that these packs were not occasion-
ally stooped to other game than fox ; a practice which even
Beckford, that staunch legitimist, though he does not recom-
mend it, writes of as a possibility when foxes are unusually
scarce. According to a memoir of the Belvoir hounds, the
present pack can prove an uninterrupted descent from the year
given by Lord Wilton. Seven years earlier the records of the
Badminton kennels could show only one couple of fox-hounds,
the rest being deer-hounds and harriers. According to ' Cecil,'
it was not till 1762 that this famous hunt turned itself solely to
the chase of the fox. In that year the fifth Duke, then still a
minor, while passing Silk Wood on his way home after a poor

HISTORY AND LITERATURE, 29

day's sport, threw his hounds into covert : ' a fox was found
which gallantly faced the open, a capital run was the result,
which so delighted the young sportsman, that the hounds were
forthwith steadied from deer, and encouraged to fox.' When
the last Lord Berkeley kept hounds his country stretched from
Bristol to Wormwood Scrubs, a distance, that is, of some 120
miles, necessitating four separate sets of kennels ! His son,
Grantley Berkeley, has told us he had often heard from their
old huntsman how he had killed a fox where the flowers now
blossom in Kensington Gardens. Nor was this lord the first
of his name who found his sport so near London ; an earlier
Lord Berkeley used to kennel his hounds at Charing Cross,
and hunt in Gray's Inn Fields, and round about Islington. The
tawny liveries still worn by the Old Berkeley Hunt are a relic
of those days.

Before 1750, and in many parts of the kingdom for long
after, every country squire no doubt kept a few couple of
hounds, and on occasions he and his neighbours would unite
their force and so form a respectable pack. These were known
as 'trencher hounds,' from their running loose about the place,
and picking up their food as they best might, and 'Nimrod'
supposes them to have been much of a piece with the large
broken-haired Welsh harriers. A day's hunting was then in all
probability very like that described in ' Guy Mannering,' though
the sportsmen were stirring at even an earlier hour than Dandie
Dinmont and his guest. For almost the only point on which we
can really afford to be certain was the desperately early hour at
which our fathers commenced operation, ' so soon as they could
distinguish a stile from a gate,' says ' Nimrod.' A famous old
sportsman, Mr. Lockley, a contemporary of Meynell's, used,
says ' Cecil,' always to begin the account of a certain wonderful
day's sport with, 'We breakfasted at twelve o'clock at night.'
Men in those days did not hunt to ride, and their greatest
pleasure was to watch their favourites drawing up to their game
on a cold scent. We know, too, that the fox was hunted then
as the stag is now A couple or two of steady old hounds were

30 HUNTING.

thrown in when the drag had led the pack up to the covert
where he lay, taking his rest after his midnight rambles, and it
was not till he was fairly on foot and away that the body of the
pack was laid on. Both hounds and horses were slow then as
compared with now, and the riders we may guess to have been
much like Squire Draper, ' avoiding what was unnecessary and
riding with judgment.' The whole affair was eminently slow no
doubt, according to our modern notions, but still, one fancies
the sport, as distinct from the riding, may not have been much
the worse. In the ' Sporting Magazine ' for July 1827, there is a
description of a pack of hounds kept by an old Essex squire who
at the close of last century hunted the country between Col-
chester and the sea on the Maldon side. The hounds were
known as harriers, 'because they used to hunt the hares,' but,
'the deep-toned blue-mottled, the dwarf fox-hound, the true-
bred harrier, the diminutive beagle, all joined in the cry, and
helped to supply the pot.' The general economy of the esta-
blishment was peculiar. The hounds were kept anyhow,
' having a butcher for one master, a baker for another, a farmer
for a third, spreading pretty well through the village.' Whip-
pers-in seem to have been numerous, the butcher, the baker,
&c., each probably playing that part to his favourite hound.
The huntsman seems to have been of a piece with the rest,
and to have been at least as famous for his feats at table as in
the field. Yet ' he was a capital sportsman, and could almost
hunt a hare himself.' This picture might probably serve for
most of the provincial packs at that time hunting in England
whether fox or hare.

The chase of the stag was pursued in much more orthodox
fashion, and with far more pomp and ceremony, both from the
nature of the animal and the fact of the sport being so much
older and more fashionable. From a very early date the royal
buckhounds were quartered in their present neighbourhood.
In Henry VIII. 's reign the kennels were in Swinley, probably
on the spot where the deer-paddocks now stand. There, too,
in the old days lived the masters of the royal pack, and kept

HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 31

high revels according to the ' Druid ' in a house which has long
since disappeared, but whose site he marked under the shadow
of some noble limes hard by that where Cotterill, the present
keeper of the paddocks, lives, as his family lived for many
generations before him. There is a record of a wonderful
run in the time of the second Charles from that place to
Lord Petre's in Essex, a distance of seventy miles, the Duke
of York being one of the few who saw the deer pulled down.
The indefatigable ' Druid ' has unearthed too another big affair,
from Aldermaston to Reading in the days of ' Good King
George.' On this occasion both his Majesty's horses were done
'to a turn,' and their rider had to make his way back to
Windsor in a butcher's cart, chatting affably to the driver on
crops, stock, and other such congenial topics. The present
fashion of stag-hunting seems to have been first practised
in this reign, and to suit King George's sober pace the custom
of stopping the hounds seems also to have been inau-
gurated. According to Elaine the meet was then a much more
imposing affair than it now is. The King himself was almost
always present, attended by his master of the horse and the
equerries-in-waiting. The servants of the hunt wore the
familiar scarlet and gold-laced liveries then as now, but the
master's coat was light blue, with collars and cuffs of black
velvet, the costume also of his Majesty, who, moreover, if a story
told by the ' Druid ' on the authority of the late Bill Bean, of
hard riding and facetious memory, be true, never took the field
without a star on his breast. l There was always a great show of
carriages and' foot-people, and apparently rather more blowing
of horns than would chime with modern notions. The Fourth
George patronised the stag but rarely, either as prince or king,
though he kept up the hunt in great splendour, and penned
with his own hand a most courtly note to Charles Davis on his
appointment as huntsman, hoping that he would get the hounds

1 The late Prince Consort (Albert) always wore the ribbon under his waist-
coat out shooting. The Editor has often shot with him, and invariably sten
it on him.

32 HUNTING.

so fast that they would ' run away from everybody,' which was
pretty well what that excellent sportsman and rider did do.
The Prince had been entered to fox in his father's lifetime, and
for a few seasons hunted the Hambledon country from Moor
Critchell, solacing himself on by days with a pack of rabbit-
beagles, seven couples of which could ride to the meet in a
couple of panniers. But, despite the ' Druid's ' loyalty, one
can hardly suppose him ever to have been very keen about
hounds. The turf suited him better than the chase ; and
Carlton House and Brighton better, probably, than either.

No pack of hounds in England could show a cleaner or
more direct pedigree than could the staghounds of North
Devonshire up to the year 1825. Exmoor was a royal hunting-
ground in the time of the Conqueror, and from that day down
into the present century there has always, we believe, been a
Ranger of Exmoor holding office under the Crown. The
history of the Devonshire hounds can be traced in a straight
line back to the year 1598, when Hugh Pollard, Elizabeth's
Ranger, kept a pack at Simonsbath. From that time down to
1825 the sport flourished exceedingly under a goodly roll of
masters, particularly under Sir Thomas Acland, the second of
the name, and the late Lord Fortescue, who kept the hounds
at Castle Hill in 1802 and again from 1812 to 1818. 'Those
were glorious days,' sighs the historian of the latter's master-
ship : ' When a good stag had been killed, the custom was for
James Tout, the huntsman, to enter the dining-room at Castle
Hill after dinner in full costume with his horn in his hand, and
after he had sounded a mort, "Success to stag-hunting" was
solemnly drunk by the assembled company in port wine.' l In
1825 the pack was sold, but two years later another was formed,
and, with one or two short intervals, the North Devon stag-
hounds have continued to show what is in many ways the finest
and most genuine sport in England.

The twelfth Earl of Derby, great-grandfather to the present,
also kept a pack of some note in his day, with which he

1 See Collyns's Notes on the Chase of the Wild Red Deer.

HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 33

hunted from The Oaks, his place near Epsom from which the
famous race takes its name. The deer were all bred at Knows-
ley, and occasionally crossed with the Yorkshire breed of Lord
Fitzwilliam ; they were noted for their speed and stoutness,
and the hounds were a good match for them in both qualities.
Pace was becoming the fashion then everywhere, and there is a
story told of Lord Derby's huntsman summing up the praises of
a favourite bitch by vowing that she could run four miles in less
time than a greyhound \ The late Thomas Moreton Fitzhardinge
Berkeley (born in 1794, died in August 1882, legally Earl of
Berkeley, but who, out of respect to his mother's memory, never
would assume the title) and his brother Grantley when young
men also hunted stag with a pack kept at Cranford, the family
seat. The brothers were the officers of the hunt, together with
Mr. Henry Wombwell, all wearing the orange tawny livery of the
family. The pack was given up about 1830, when Mr. Grantley
Berkeley went to hunt the Oakley. A smart little pack was also
kept some years ago near Leamington, and the Surrey Stag-
hounds are of very ancient fame. But save in the West Country
the wild stag has not been hunted in England (excepting occa-
sionally in Windsor Forest in George III.'s time), certainly
within this century, though in Ireland the sport has been, we
believe, occasionally followed within more recent times, but not
as we understand 'hunting.' It consists in driving the woods
of Killarney and forcing the stags into the Lake, where they are
shot or caught with ropes by the horns. Wild deer exist no-
where else in Ireland.

Fox hunting, as we know it now, with its pace and its hard
riding, its sumptuousness and refinement, may be said to have
come in with this century. Mr. Childe of Kinlet, says ' The
Druid,' first began hard riding in Leicestershire to Mr. Mey-
nell's great disgust, and on a half-bred Arabian, too ! When
Lords Forester and Jersey came with the reckless style of
riding, the good old sportsman declared that he ' had not had a
day's happiness ; ' as he has been described as a ' regular little
dumpling ' in the saddle, probably the new style of going was

D

34 HUNTING.

not much to his taste. Moreover, one of his first laws was
never to cast his hounds so long as they would hunt ; and the
observation of this law was clearly not compatible with hard
riding. Whether the sport is now what it was in the days
whose glories ' Nimrod ' has written of and Alken painted, it
would be as ungenerous to ask as difficult to answer. If the
stones unearthed by the untiring industry of ' The Druid '

' As we know it now. '

may all be relied on, there must have been giants indeed
in those days ; hounds, horses, riders, and, we may add, foxes,
must all have been marvels of their kind. ' The peaches are
not so big now as they were in our days,' wrote Haydon to
Wordsworth, when they two were the sole relics ' of a glorious
band.' Yet ' Cecil ' vowed that ' where there was one good
horseman thirty years ago (that is, in the first quarter of the
century) there are twenty now.' The younger men of his day

HISTORY AND LITERATURE 35

(they are the ' old men ' of ours !) rode, he thought, with better
judgment and science than their fathers, and with quite as
much pluck. Comparisons, however, are always odious where
there exists no sound ground for making them. Those who
may feel a desire to try and puzzle out one for themselves can-
not do better than turn to the pages of ' Nimrod ' and ' The
Druid,' where, if the question may be solved, they will find
ample means for solving it. That Lords Jersey, Forester, and
Delamere, Messrs. Assheton Smith and Osbaldeston, and others
of that period were splendid riders, is undoubted. That fences
were fewer, as is sometimes asserted, is not the case, for many
have been thrown down. Ox fences or rails were more
numerous, and bullfinches also ; but they did not cut and
plaish the fences then, and they knew not the binders that
turn horses over. They used to fly the oxers or crash through
the bullfinch. That neither hounds nor horses went so fast
then, is undoubted. As fewer men hunted, it was easier to get
good horses. There was more room, not so much hurry and
crowding ; and more pleasure. There were fine horsemen
and good riders across country, there have also been the same
since, and there are happily many now. For our part we have
tried to bring the history of hunting down to the period when
it had reached the phase familiar to us. Having done that,
the real business of our book begins, and to the great deeds
and the great men who did them we shall from time to lime
find other occasions to refer.

D a

36 HUNTING.

CHAPTER II.

BEASTS OF THE CHASE.

THE STAG.

THE chase of the stag was considered, as we have already
read, the most 'princely and royal chase of all chases,' and the
animal itself of all beasts ' the goodliest, stateliest, and most
manly.' Among modern sportsmen the fox now holds the
pride of place, if not in personal qualities, at any rate in the
diversion those qualities afford. Your true Devonshire stag
hunter certainly will not allow this, and even the staunchest
follower of the fox has been known at times to confess that for
thorough genuine sport there are few things to compare with a
gallop after a 'warrantable' stag at the stern of the North
Devon hounds, and not many things harder than to keep in
that place ! The field sport that has stood the test of public
criticism through a period of from three to five hundred years
may surely assert its claim to the title of a national pastime.

Stag hunting, as everyone knows, has existed from time
immemorial; but whether it was conducted in precisely the
same manner as it is at present, until the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, is very doubtful. Historical records prove conclu-
sively that there was, kennelled at Simonsbath, in this reign,
a pack of staghounds, which hunted the red deer on the
Exmoors on a system similar to that now in vogue. It is not,
perhaps, too much to hope, that while English noblemen,
gentlemen, yeomen, and farmers retain their profound love of
field sports, there will be, at some convenient centre on the
moorland range, a pack of staghounds as efficient in every

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE STAG. 37

respect as that now under the deservedly popular heir of the
House of Fortescue, whose history furnishes a long list of
ardent supporters of the sport. That the ardour of the stag
hunter is incapable of being quenched by the devotion of a
lifetime will be readily admitted by those who have shared the
pleasures, excitements, and dangers of the chase with the many
veteran local sportsmen over whose shoulders nearly fourscore
years have passed harmlessly.

Nothing, perhaps, strikes the stranger, on his first visit to
this historic hunting ground more than the enthusiasm for the
sport displayed by men of all ages and all classes of the
community. If he should be indiscreet enough to compare
the merits of stag hunting with those of fox hunting, his re-
marks will invariably meet with unveiled disapproval, coupled
with an oppressive load of commiseration.

It is possible that stag hunting on the Exmoors and Quan-
tocks derives some of its fascination from their unique wildness
and picturesqueness. On emerging from the fertile Somerset-
shire valleys and sheltered Devonshire ' coombes ' and reaching
the Exmoors, the vast expanse of heather-clad moorland, with
its richly wooded ravines, stretching far away to the Bristol
Channel, is, as if by magic, brought within one's vievr ; and as
the sportsman canters briskly towards the far-famed Dunkery
Beacon, the romantic beauty of the surroundings, together with
the influence of the crisp mountain air, enables him readily to
understand the native stag hunter's enthusiasm. As he winds
his way to Cloutsham, and views, at about a mile distant, four
or five hinds, attended by their antlered lord, cantering up
a steep hillside, with their nostrils expanded and elevated,
expelling their heated breath, like curls of smoke from cottage
chimneys, he is fain to admit that no nobler quarry could be
found.

In no other district of the British Isles can the sport of
hunting the wild Red Deer be enjoyed in the same perfection as
it is on the Exmoor. Therefore, we shall offer no apology for
referring to the methods practised in this district.

38 HUNTING.

In the case of stag hunting, as in that of every other sport,
it is above all things necessary that they who undertake the
management of a pack of hounds should have a general know-
ledge of the nature and habits of the animal to be hunted.

Without this knowledge the most vigorous and sustained
efforts will surely end in failure and vexation, because it
would be impossible to out- manoeuvre the many stratagems
that the Red Deer will invariably adopt for outwitting his
pursuers. It is a vexed question, but a wholly unimportant
one to all persons except naturalists, whether the Red Deer
is a native of the British Islands. But that he is a tolerably old

Four or five hinds, attended by their antlered
lord, cantering up a hillside.'

and valued friend of na
tive sportsmen, historical
records of the date of
the Norman Conquest
clearly establish. More-
over, these leave us in
no doubt about the

position of supremacy accorded him by kings, lawmakers, and
historians, as well as sportsmen, over all other beasts of the
forest. During the four succeeding centuries the heaviest penal-
ties were inflicted upon persons who killed or in any way injured
a stag which had made good his escape after being hunted by
the king or queen. On such an incident occurring, a royal
proclamation was posted in all the adjoining hamlets and

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE STAG. 39

villages warning all persons against killing or injuring him ; and
he was placed under the surveillance of the harbourer, whose
special business it was to safeguard the exhausted animal until
its return to the forest was effected. It would be well if the
same chivalrous spirit towards animals that have ministered to
our cravings for sport prevailed more generally in the present
unsentimental age.

The colour of the Red Deer is for the most part a reddish
brown ; while from the tail, or, as it is technically termed, ' the
single,' underneath the body the colour becomes much lighter.
Strangely enough, the calves, up to their fifth or sixth month,
bear a very close resemblance in colour to the Fallow Deer.

The Red Deer has ever been known by his horns, which
differ very materially from those of all other kinds of deer.
The horns, or, to use the technical term, ' the head,' consists
of a beam, from which points or processes project. The num-
ber of these points or antlers determine his age. The yearling
deer has no horns, but at two years old a short spire is thrown
out. This lengthens, and from its base, at the completion of
his third year, projects horizontally towards the front, the
' brow antler.' At four years old the horns increase to nearly
eighteen inches in length, and another process, termed the
bay antler, is formed. At five years the tray antler is thrown
out, and two points appear on the top of one horn. At six
years old there are two points on each horn. At seven years,
one horn has three points and the other two. At eight years,
the stag will have three points on each horn. When hunting,
the expression ' two on top ' and ' three on top ' will be used to
signify that the stag is seven and eight years old, as the case
may be. After the latter age, the changes of the head are
slight, though naturally, as the age increases, it becomes wider
in its spread.

It is customary to speak of a stag by the total number of his
' rights ' brow, bay, and tray antlers, and by that of his ' points.'
Thus, at six years old, he will be ' a stag of ten ; ' that is to say,
he will have two brow antlers, two bay antlers, two tray antlers,

40 HUNTING.

and two poincs of each horn ; while at eight years old he will
be 'a stag of twelve.'

Dr. Palk Collyns, in his excellent work on ' Stag Hunting on
the Exmoors,' states that he has seen as many as seven points
on the top of a very old stag's horn ; and that an old stag, long
known as the Badgeworthy Deer, had seven on the top of one
horn, and six on the other, when killed on September 8, 1786.
He would be called a stag of nineteen points. This intelligent
observer gives as his opinion that after a stag has passed his
prime, the horns decrease in size and form until the horn
deteriorates, and nothing but an upright or single spire, like
that appearing in the three-year-old deer, is visible.

Before leaving the subject of the horns, it may be well to
make a passing allusion to the marvellous and almost mere*
dible powers of reproduction of horn with which deer are en-
dowed. They shed their horns annually in the spring seldom
after May. When the period of shedding approaches, they
leave the open, and remain in the covers until the formation of
new horn begins. In about sixteen weeks the magnificent pair
of horns (weighing about fourteen pounds) will be replaced.

As may be readily imagined, during the growth of the horn
excessive pain, accompanied by bleeding, would be caused by
a blow from a branch of a tree, or other hard substance ; and
consequently deer will, at this time, avoid coppice and thicket
and confine themselves to woods or plantations which present
fewer objects of danger. That this period is one of pain and
suffering to the stag is very evident, for in addition to the
occasional blow he can hardly avoid, flies keep him in a state
of continual torment.

The famous Dr. Bell thus describes the process of renew*
ing the horn :

' The growth of the horn is an astonishing instance of the
rapidity of production of bone under particular circumstances,
and unparalleled in its extent in so short a period. During its
growth the branches of the external carotid arteries, which
lend their assistance in the formation, are considerably enlarged

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE STAG. 41

for the purpose of carrying the great flow of blood required
for the production of the bone. It extends by means of the
velvet (a plexus of blood-vessels) all over the external parts of
the horn ; it is quite soft and highly vascular, so that the
slightest injury causes blood to flow freely, and the horn, when
this occurs, to be imperfectly developed.'

The hind is mated in her second year, and seldom gives
birth to more than one calf at a time. The rutting season
begins in October ; and, as the period of gestation is nine
months, the calves will be dropped in June.

It is clear, therefore, that stag hunting should be discon-
tinued before the rutting season commences ; and that, to
avoid the commission of unsportsmanlike conduct, the season
for hunting stags should not be carried beyond the first week of
October.

A period of three or four weeks ought then to be allowed
to elapse before hunting the hinds, that they may be left free
to enjoy the society of their lords. The practice on the Ex-
moors is to begin stag hunting in the second week of August,
and to bring it to a close in the first week of October ; to begin
hind hunting at the end of October, and to carry on the sport,
weather permitting, until April. Perhaps the most important
office in connection with a stag-hunting establishment is that of
the harbourer, for on the industry, care, and experience which
he brings to bear upon the discharge of his duties, the sport
will very largely depend. Nothing can be more vexatious to a
huntsman, master, and field than to receive false information
with regard to the ' harbour ' of a deer, and to be driven in
consequence to the necessity of drawing at a venture for hours
before a ' warrantable ' deer is roused. Such an unworkman-
like pursuit of sport is a sad trial to the patience of hunts-
man, hounds, and field, and ought not to be often repeated.

The harbourer ought to be a man of active habits, keen
sight and observation, and possessed of a thorough knowledge
of the habits of the deer. We will suppose that it is desired
to harbour a stag in any particular cover. The harbourer

42 HUNTING.

should take up a convenient position at least an hour before
daybreak. The choice of position is most important, and
should be determined by the circumstances of the case. If
the cover should have, on its outskirts, a field of turnips, a
field of oats, a meadow, or other tempting feeding ground, the
position taken up ought to command as much of it as possible.
Some harbourers prefer climbing a tree, while others incline to
secreting themselves in a ditch for the purpose of making
observations.

We will suppose that the harbourer is desirous of harbour-
ing a deer for the next morning in a wood of 100 acres,
covering a ravine, whose two slopes, running north and south,
are separated by a rapid stream, and whose ridges are bounded
by a vast expanse of moorland. On the south side, about
half a mile down stream, there is feeding ground, consisting of
a field of turnips ; a small inclosure partly covered with oats
and partly by old grass and rushes.

This will prove difficult ground to survey. But the
harbourer must do his best. He goes to bed early that he
may not oversleep himself ; but he cannot sleep for thinking
of to-morrow's work. The wind appeared unsteady over-night,
and his plan of approach may have to be altered. He must
not go down wind, for he may, by coughing or tripping
over a stone, and ejaculating compliments to nature, arouse
the alarm of the ever vigilant stag, whose exquisite scent-
ing powers would confirm them. The harbourer goes men-
tally over the ground, again and again ; surveys every path,
every little ridge, every tree, every point of vantage ; and
having exhausted each alternative that gives promise of an
unobserved approach, he falls asleep for an hour or two,
and then wakes with a start, impressed with a sense of fear
that daylight will be upon him before he can take up his
position. Very few minutes are devoted to his toilette. He
goes hurriedly downstairs, throws open the cupboard, cuts off
a crust of bread, which he stuffs into his pocket, and goes
straight to the shed, in which is an old pony, quite a local

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE STAG. 43

celebrity, who knows what he will be required to do, and is
prepared to do it.

The pony, saddled and bridled, is guided, at a shogging
trot, to a point about two miles north of the ravine, for there
is a sharp breeze blowing from the south-west. A well-known
ford is crossed, and the pony is struggling up the precipitous
sheep-walk under his rider, rendered heavier by the weight of
care, which has made him unmindful of the place in which he
ought to sit on the saddle.

The summit of the ravine reached, a wide detour is made.
The pony is eased of his burden, and is turned into a small
moorland inclosure, about half a mile from the south-eastern
corner of the wood. The harbcurer walks briskly to within
two hundred yards of the wood, then pauses. The wind is
blowing straight in his face so far well. But the ground is
exposed between the wood and the feeding ground only small
clumps of firs here and there breaking the view. No risk
must be run. So he beats a retreat, in a south-easterly direc-
tion, until level with a clump of firs, from which he knows he
can command the feeding ground. He walks as noiselessly as
possible, straight up wind. His heart sinks ! There are nothing
but fir trees and he cannot climb them. Happily a few paces
off in the open is a stunted oak. This will do. He at once
throws himself on his face and wriggles on his chest to the
oak tree, not attempting to raise his head until he has swung
round, and the trunk of the tree hides the ravine from his view.

Now he can rise with safety, for he knows that the deer can
neither see nor wind him. He climbs the tree with the
stealth of a panther, taking care not to put his feet on any
doubtful branch that might break and scare the deer. Having
reached a convenient fork from which can be obtained a full view
of the southern entrance to the ravine, and the intermediate
space covered with brushwood, leading up to the feeding
ground, the period of unbroken watching begins.

A drenching shower shortly succeeds the break of day.
But it will not do to descend for shelter. Where he is, there

44 HUNTING.

he must remain whatever may happen ; and there he does
stay, till he is soaked to the skin. A keen wind rises, and
sends a chill through his weather-beaten frame. What shall he
do ? He certainly can eat his crust of bread. He will. One
bile is all he can take. Two magpies and a jay are flitting
about over the centre of the western slope of the ravine. His
heart throbs until he fears that the deer will hear its pulsations,
for he knows that something is moving.

The birds fly from tree to tree southwards, chattering to
one another.

There is a pause : the sound of the birds ceases. He
strains his eyes in all directions, but can see nothing. The
crust of bread is again produced, now well sodden and coat
stained, yet his palate is not insulted by its condition and
miscellaneous flavour. He is evidently superior to the ordi-
nary trials of life. His patience is inexhaustible, but he has
fears that he will not ' harbour ' a stag this morning.

Presently, he observes that the magpies are once more on
the alert, this time flitting straight up the ravine. What can
this mean ? There is no feeding ground that way. He feels
sure that if the deer are on foot, they will come back.

But they don't, and the birds take wing up the western
slope of the ravine, until lost to view. This seems to denote
that the deer will take the open, and come by a circuitous
route to the feeding ground. And surely enough, there they
come over the moorland, but sinking behind a ridge are in a
moment completely hidden. The harbourer sees no more of
them. Presently he hears a human voice coming from the
direction of the feeding ground. It is the voice of a boy
driving a horse. If the tree on which our friend is sitting
were struck by lightning, he could not have been more be-
wildered.

' What brings he here this time o' the morning, I wonder ? '
falls involuntarily from his lips. But he knows better than to
descend from his perch for the purpose of inquiring.

He is keeping his eyes fixed upon the point where he last

LEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE STAG. 45

viewed the deer. Presently he observes them, only for a
second, cantering back in the same direction from whence they
came, but he cannot distinguish them. Nothing daunted, he
will not leave his post until half-past nine o'clock. Cramped,
cold, and not a little disappointed, he climbs down and walks
briskly off to the feeding ground. He does not enter it at
once, but examines the fences and their approaches with
scrupulous care. Everything is against him ; the ground has
been so hard for the past month that no mark of a slot can be
detected. But he has other resources at his command.

He first enters the oat and grass inclosure, but no deer
have been there. He then explores the turnip field, and this
reveals to him the cause of the boy's visit. A load of turnips
has been carted away from the part next the gate. No sign of
damage done by the deer is discernible here. However, he
strolls on hopefully, examining every turnip, until his eyes rest
on a patch of ground strewed with turnips lying with their roots
uppermost.

A glow of triumph lights up his face, for he knows that a
stag did this. Yes ; there are his marks ! Every turnip bitten
once, and once only. No hind has worked such purposeless
havoc.

The rain will have rendered the ground soft enough to make
the stag's slot sufficiently clear to a vision as acute as his. So
he hurries off to the inclosure, where he left the pony some
five hours ago, and, having mounted, jogs off to the ford,
which he crossed in the early morning.

There a circuit of the western slope of the ravine is made.
Every path and piece of turf is minutely examined, without
revealing the much-wished-for confirmation of the evidence in
the turnip field until the point where he had viewed the deer is
reached.

Here the slots are distinct ; but further search has to be
made before the slot of a stag is discovered. There it is,
broad at the heels and blunt at the toes ! It is quite fresh and
deeper than the slots of his companions. ' He is a big, heavy

46 HUNTING.

varmint, or he would not push his feet that fur into the land ! '
is the only remark. The slot, however, is deciphered with ease
to the south-west corner of the ravine. Off goes the harbourer
to his cottage, determined to come again on the following
morning, and to pursue the same tactics as he did to-day. To-
morrow's dawn finds him on his perch once more, and before
5 A.M. he sees the stag with all his rights and ' four on top '
emerge from the same point of the ravine, attended by half a
dozen companions of various ages, and renew his depredations
in the turnip field. Not content with this, he waits patiently
until he has safely harboured the stag in the western slope as
before.

The harbourer returns home quite confident that, if the
wood is not disturbed, the stag with his ' rights and four on
top ' will be roused when the tufters are put m by Arthur on the
next day.

This description of the harbourer's work may seem some-
what trite, as in truth it is ; but, like many other undertakings
that are easier of description than execution, it will tax to the
utmost the patience and skill of the shrewdest expert.

We have frequently heard persons, whose knowledge of the
sport is very limited, express the opinion that any gamekeeper
has sufficient knowledge and powers of observation to harbour
a stag. Our experiences of the ability of the majority of game-
keepers to discharge the duties of a harbourer certainly do not
confirm this opinion. A case in point, still fresh in our
memory, occurred some years ago. A gamekeeper asserted that
' he had harboured a stag with three on top ' in a plantation,
and that ' he saw him most days.' True enough he had
seen the stag enter the plantation on several occasions after
feeding, and had marked the spot exactly. The tufters were
thrown in, and drew the cover, while everyone was in a
state of breathless excitement, in the expectation of hearing
' Romeo ' speak to him. Not a bit of it ! The keeper was
interrogated, and stoutly maintained that 'the stag must be
there, for he had never seen him come out.'

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE STAG. 47

The huntsman soon explained the matter. The stag had
gone into the cover, but had gone out on the opposite side ; and,
indeed, as it was afterwards proved, had never harboured there
at all, but some four miles off! Such a blunder, due to a
mixture of ignorance and carelessness, would never have
occurred had an expert been employed. But the great difficulty
in these days lies not in finding a stag, but in killing him. The
class of hound best fitted for hunting deer en the Exmoors is
very difficult to procure.

We are of opinion that it would be well nigh impossible to
breed, in any establishment, a pack of hounds of sufficient size
and speed, though the most matured judgment should be
brought to bear on the undertaking. The desired height is
twenty-five inches, and is, therefore, probably one and a half
inches above that of the ordinary foxhound. Consequently it
is better not to attempt to breed a pack of hounds, but to de-
pend on drafts of oversized hounds from the best foxhound
kennels in the country. Even with such a prolific source to
draw upon it is very difficult to maintain the strength of the
pack.

The reason why hounds of twenty-five inches are required
is apparent to anyone who has seen a pack on the Exmoors,
where the length of the heather sorely hinders the work of
hounds that do not stand well over it. Nor is it enough that the
hound should have height ; he must be well put together, more
particularly as to his ieet and shoulders. Heavy-shouldered
hounds very soon become crippled, however good their legs and
feet may be, by racing down the precipitous hills and ravines
that abound on the Exmoors. It will not do to take hounds
that have been entered at any other quarry, consequently
young drafts must be obtained.

Much trouble is occasioned in breaking the pack from
riot. Many persons who have hunted in this district during
the greater part of their lives maintain that the tendency of the
pack to kill sheep is in a measure due to the scent of the moor-
land sheep being similar to that of the deer. Without being a

48 HUNTING.

believer in this theory, we are convinced that the scent of the
moorland sheep differs considerably from that of the ordinary
sheep kept in the inclosed country. Then the temptations in
the case of the moorland sheep are far greater ; for hounds,
when they are quite out of the reach and observation of the
huntsman, frequently come upon a single sheep, in the middle
of a wood, at the exact spot passed by the hunted deer. Con-
sequently all entries, as soon after their arrival at the kennels as
possible, must be thoroughly broken from sheep, and entered
and blooded at deer. The best method of breaking puppies
from sheep is to take them out, coupled to old hounds, and
exercise them on parts of the moor where sheep are kept in
large numbers. If, during exercise, any of the puppies should
make an attempt to run at a sheep, he should be approached
stealthily and hit sharply with the whip, after which he should
be rated severely. If this practice be continued until July,
when the puppies should be entered at deer and blooded, they
will not give much trouble.

The wear and tear to a pack of hounds hunting on the
Exmoors are very great. Not only have the hounds to go
long distances to and from the meets, and to endure the strain
of prolonged runs over very hard ground, but they have also to
leave their kennels for some days at a time in order that they
may hunt a distant part of the country. When kennelled in a
barn or other suitable building, biscuits must take the place of
oatmeal, since it is next to impossible to take the necessary
appliances for making pudding. The result of this change of
diet is very prejudicial to the condition of the hounds, who
return to their kennels with their muscles wasted and their
coats dry. In all respects the kennel management of stag-
hounds is the same as that in vogue in the best foxhound
kennels. The hour of feeding hounds on the day previous to
hunting has long been a vexed question. But the weight of
evidence is decidedly in favour of eight o'clock in the morning,
the hour at which the Exford pack is fed.

There is also considerable difference of opinion in relation

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE STAG. 49

to the number of hounds which should be brought into the
field. We do not think that any hard and fast rule can be laid
down on this point, because the numerical strength of the pack
must be determined by the nature of the country to be hunted.
It is, however, safe to take the mean of eighteen and twenty-
four couples. There can be no question that of all the
animals hunted in this country, the stag leaves behind him
the most lasting scent. We have not unfrequently noticed the
pack carrying a good head at a racing pace, for a mile or two,
quite a gunshot wide of the line taken by the stag. Indeed
so marvellous was the diffusion of scent that on several
occasions we were induced to believe that there must be a
double line ; and it was only after a minute examination of the
exact line run by the hounds that we were convinced that no
deer had taken it.

It must not be inferred from this that it was a matter of
no difficulty to run down a deer ; for such is his cunning
and stratagem that he will, very frequently, though handi-
capped by a burning scent, out-manceuvre and elude the
most experienced huntsmen and the closest hunting pack of
hounds.

As all deer will take the water, or 'soil,' as it is technically
termed, as often as opportunity occurs, the hounds must be
able to hunt on a cold scent. It is also absolutely necessary
that they should be under perfect command, for the many
incidents of a run, to be dealt with effectively, require great
steadiness. When a stag ' takes soil,' the pack must be 'divided
and cast up or down, as the case may be, both banks of the river
or stream.

When the hunted stag ' runs to herd/ pushes up another
deer, and lies close, it is all-important that the hounds be
brought back immediately.

This operation is often a matter of extreme difficulty, for
the stratagem, in nine cases out of ten, is practised in a large
woodland, where the working of the hounds is continually
hidden from the observation of the huntsman. An old trusted

E

50 HUNTING.

hound, standing still and declining to join the others, is a sign
that the pack have changed to afresh deer.

Moreover, it frequently happens that the deer that has been
pushed up goes away in view of the hounds, which, at such a
period of a run, are particularly eager for blood and intolerant
of restraint.

The choice of tufters is important ; for, upon their fit-
ness for the work of rousing and separating the stag from
the herd, the sport of the season depends. Of course old
and trusty hounds must be selected. But tufters must be
possessed of unusual quickness, handiness, and patience, or
delays fatal to sport will be occasioned. When the wrong
animal either a calf, hind, or ' broket ' has been roused,
and has been driven hard by the tufters for perhaps half an
hour or more before the sex or age of the quarry is discovered,
it is a great trial to the temper of hounds to be whipped off, and
required to begin their work de novo. If, therefore, there
should be any suspicion of sulkiness or want of perseverance
in a hound he should not be used as a tufter.

As to the number of tufters to be used, no precise directions
can be given, because the number must be determined by the
size of the cover or the area of open ground that the tufters
will be required to draw. If the cover be of moderate size,
that is to say, under fifty acres, four tufters would be sufficient.
But in the case of a large cover, or vast expanse of moorland,
two couples would be wholly insufficient, for they might draw
all day without rousing a deer, though they might approach
within fifty yards of his lair. Probably the number of tufters
should not in any case be less than four nor more than twelve.
In the event of the latter number being used, the huntsman
and whip should be especially vigilant ; and if the services of
one or two amateur aides-de-camp can be obtained, the chances
of hounds separating, and hunting three or four lines, will be
materially lessened.

It is not often that an old stag hunter, if he should have but
one horse out, will discount his prospects of taking a forward

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE STAG. 51

place in the run proper, by getting to the bottom of his horse
through keeping the tufters together, so that special arrange-
ments should be made by the master to provide the necessary
additional aid to the huntsman.

Considerable judgment is required in selecting head-
quarters for the pack. A barn or some convenient part of a farm
homestead generally affords all the accommodation required.
But such homesteads as are accessible only at one or two points
are unfit for the purpose ; since, if the tufters should run their
deer into the open on the side of the farm buildings to which
there is not a ready access, a serious waste of time must be
occasioned in bringing the pack to the point where the tufters
were stopped.

When once deer take the open their habit is to move on,
whether pursued closely or not, until they take soil, or run to
herd in a cover. It is perfectly evident, therefore, that nothing
can compensate for a want of smartness in bringing the pack to
the huntsman. If the pack should be, as it ought to be when
the tufters are at work, left under the direction of the master, his
second horseman should be told off to keep the huntsman in
view, so as to be ready to gallop back to his master imme-
diately the tufters are stopped,- or when the huntsman signals for
the pack. It is surprising with what dash staghounds when
liberated will race to meet the huntsman. The reason of
their liberation is very soon grasped by every hound in the pack,
so that the services of the whipper-in are not much needed.
It cannot be pointed out too frequently that unless the hunts-
man is a man of experience, dash, nerve, and is thoroughly
acquainted with the habits of deer, he will fail to show good
sport on the Exmoors whatever his merits may be in the ken-
nel and saddle. Staghounds cannot be hunted on the 'let
alone ' principle, which would mean ' a rest-and-be-thankful '
existence for the deer. When the pack reaches the huntsman,
he should clap them on the line and drive them, so long as they
are on the line, as fast as his horse can carry him. By this
method he may succeed in driving them till they get on good

52 HUNTING.

terms with their quarry. To attempt to crawl down a stag,
unless he be very fat and heavy, is to attempt an impossibility.
Staghounds at fault ought not to be lifted to a distant halloo
unless the huntsman has good reason for depending upon it ;
for if a mistake should be made, and hounds laid on a fresh
line, neither deer will be accounted for. Such blunders will
surely promote an incurable slackness, for the very best hounds
will not bear being deceived frequently. If they cannot own
the line, little or no harm can arise from their being lifted as
far as the huntsman may think fit for the purpose of recovering
it. When the stag is brought to bay, old hounds will not attack
him. They appear to know perfectly well that the coup de grace
will be delivered by human hands, and that when they have
run him to bay their work is done.

The intelligence of the staghound is proportionate to his
scenting powers. It is difficult to believe that in the excite-
ment of the chase he is able to distinguish by his nose be-
tween a hind and a stag, and between an old deer and a young
one. Nevertheless, during a single season he frequently de-
monstrates his ability to do so.

As the climate of the Exmoor is very severe during the
winter and spring, and as the habit of the deer to ' take soil '
at all seasons of the year is universal, and entails upon the
hounds frequent immersion, the temperature of the kennel
lodging-room may be raised by artificial means, which the
stove in the boiling-house will economically supply. 1 That
huntsmen, like poets, 'are bom and not made,' is a maxim
that few sportsmen will have the temerity to dispute. A good
training will undoubtedly give a man a knowledge of the most
approved system of handling a pack of hounds; but it will
never take the place of that venatic instinct with which some
men are endowed.

1 Some authorities think that this system produces rheumatism in hounds,
and is ther- fore to he avoided to souse them well in warm water when they
are taken home, and rub them dry with a horsehair glove, is the better plan.
Artificial heat is only necessary if they have been swimming about in cold
weathtr.

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE STAG. 53

The good fortune that has attended the packs of staghounds
kept on the Exmoors during the last thirty years in regard to
the ability of their huntsmen is very remarkable. Most of us
are inclined to compare things of the present unfavourably
with those of the past ; and this inclination is almost universal
when questions connected with hunting are under discussion
It is, however, very doubtful if a veteran stag hunter could be
found in Devon or Somerset who could be induced to assert
that a more able exponent of the art of stag hunting than the
present huntsman, Arthur Heal, ever carried the horn on the
Exmoors. If anyone is desirous of observing a practical
demonstration of the oest methods of surmounting the many
difficulties and emergencies with which a huntsman has to deal,
he should pay a visit to Exford as soon as may be after the
middle of August. That Heal has succeeded in making his,
hounds very handy under all circumstances without having
subjected them to that severity of treatment considered by
some huntsmen to be essential, entitles his system in the
kennel and the field to the approval of all lovers of sport and
of the hounds that furnish it.

Being a light weight, a good horseman, and having a
thorough knowledge of the country, he scarcely ever loses
touch of his hounds. Consequently, they can seldom divide
or run riot without his knowledge. He rarely loses any of his
hounds for more than three or four days at a time, owing to
the excellent practice of exercising the pack on the moors,
with every road to and from which they become well acquainted ;
so that, if separated from the pack through lameness or other
accidental causes, they are able to find their way to the
kennels.

All the local supporters of the Hunt are exhorted not to
' harbour ' any lost hound that may honour them with a visit,
but to expel him from their doors with as much force as may
be necessary. This system averts an infinite amount of trouble,
anxiety, and expense, and renders that loitering and loafing
propensity, so strong in some hounds, utterly unprofitable.

54 HUNTING.

The main cause of absence of hounds from ' the roll call '
after hunting is that they have roused a calf, run into it, and
regaled themselves on its carcase. If this is of tolerable size
it will last the truants three or four days ; and until the last
morsel has been devoured they are not to be tempted, even by
visions of Arthur's appetising pudding, to return to their kennels.

The habit of staghounds under these circumstances is pecu-
liar. After satisfying their hunger to the full on the carcase
they do not, as one would suppose, lie close to it and guard it
against plunderers ; but they ' lie up,' generally as much as two
or three gunshots away from it. Probably this habit had its
origin in a desire to avoid detection ; for, when hounds are
surprised during the period of feasting they are particularly
shy, and averse to the approach of any human being.

It will be readily apprehended after what has been said that
it would be as fatal to the good conduct of the pack as to
sport to bring out more than four or five couples of young
hounds at a time, since it would be impossible to keep a larger
number with the pack.

The duties of the whipper-in are very different from those
of a whipper-in to foxhounds. The latter has principally to
confine himself to the work of preventing riot, assisting the
huntsman, verifying halloos, &c., while the former must fre-
quently be separated a mile or two from the huntsman. He
must take up positions from whence he can see whether the
right or the wrong animal is hunted ; and he must frequently
maintain communications with the huntsman by means of
signals.

If hounds cross one of the many precipitous ravines to
be found in the country he must not cross till he has viewed
them away on the other side, for if the deer should soil
in the bottom of the ravine, as will probably be the case, or
break cover on the opposite side and head back again, he
would most probably come back in the teeth of the whipper-in,
who would be in a position to ascertain his exact condition,
the probable duration of the run, and the point for which he

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE STAG. 55

was making. Moreover, the whipper-in could go on with the
hounds in the event of their having outpaced the huntsman.
The office of a whipper-in is a very important one, and if he
is really fond of the sport, his opportunities of observation ought
to enable him to act the part of huntsman with success.

It is quite necessary that the huntsman and whipper-in to a
pack of staghounds should have two horses out, for it is im-
possible that any man can do his work efficiently on a day of
average sport with one horse, however stout the animal may
be. Speed, as has been before asserted, is an essential attribute
of the staghound. It is no less so of the hunter. If hounds
are fast, horses must be fast. But, on the Exmoors, this maxim
is so universally accepted that there need be no fear of a good
local sportsman, like Lord Ebrington, mounting his men on
horses that are deficient in speed or stoutness. In fact, one
week's experience on the moors would be sufficient to convince
anyone capable of forming a reasonable judgment that horses of
high quality are indispensable factors in a stag-hunting establish-
ment. Much care ought to be exercised in the selection of
horses with long clean shoulders, short backs, and very hard
and sound feet ; for if they are not properly constructed in
these points they cannot go up and down hill, and over rough,
rocky ground, at the necessary speed.

We must now break off, and make the best of our way to
the meet at Cloutsham, or we shall not be able to give an
account of the doings of the redoubtable Arthur and his pack
on this second day of October. The second horsemen, aware
that no time is to be lost, are jogging over Exford Bridge,
having a vivid recollection of the long and steep hill that has
to be climbed before the moorland ridge is reached, so we
shall follow them until the hounds overtake us. Every promise
of sport is present A soft and somewhat damp breeze is
coming from the east, but there is yet no sign of fog or rain.
The heather is at its best. It is true that the bloom has
partly fallen, but the delicate colouring of what remains lends
a rare attractiveness to the scene. Coming from all quarters

56 HUNTING.

are men in hunting costume, mounted on wiry, tough-looking
little horses, that seem hardly up to their riders' weights, which,
it must be admitted, testify to the good fare provided for their
lords by the Devon and Somerset housewives.

So far all the early arrivals are worthy representatives of the
classes of yeomen and tenant farmers ; classes that, we trust,
will ever be represented at the cover side, where their ruddy
cheery faces and frank and independent manners contrast
agreeably with the blanched skin and reserved demeanour of
the visitors who have arrived in their tens to put the finish on
their sporting education, to restore their physical vigour squan-
dered in the metropolis, and to work themselves into condition
for six days a week in the shires during the following month.
It must be admitted that Arthur has a very critical assembly,
but we have confidence that the best horseman in the field, it
there be a run, will have to play the game of follow my leader ;
the lover of precision and dash will be compelled to applaud,
and the worshipper of close hunting will have nothing to com-
plain of.

But where are the hounds ? They are in the farm buildings,
which are in the occupation of a keen lover of the sport. We
wish him good morning, hope that there is a stag at home, and
that he will give us ' the run of the season.'

' There be a vine stag down along in the bottom ; and if
he don't give 'ee a vine run, he's eat my oats to no purpose,' is
the reply.

But his lordship has come, so we feel that the business of
the day is drawing near.

Arthur, his lordship, and the harbourer have a brief confer-
ence, and then retire to the other side of the farmyard. We
follow the trio and soon learn that the tufters are to be brought
out. The whipper-in is at the door of the barn, and in
accordance with Arthur's instructions calls out five and a half
couples of steady workmanlike-looking hounds, whose appear-
ance denotes contact with anything but a bed of roses.

However, they bear their honourable scars with dignity, and

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE STAG. 57

leave their confreres to endure their disappointment as best
they may. A move is 'made. The visitors pull up their girths,
test the length of their stirrups, and prepare for a burst over
the moors. They little know what is in store for them, though
they express to one another some surprise at the indifference to
the proceedings displayed by the local sportsmen. However,
they leave the provincials to take care of themselves and trot
down the hills after Arthur and the tufters, prepared to have the
day's sport to themselves. There is no dwelling on the part of
Arthur, and while the visitors have been engaged in conversa-
tion, they discover that they have been left in the lurch and
must gallop along the hard road at the bottom, that they may
ascertain which direction he has taken.

They cannot see him, for he has turned up the hill into the
cover, about two hundred yards forward. They have, however
the satisfaction of hearing his voice, and the stones rolling
under his horse's feet. Very soon a hound opens. ' Hush ! is
that right ? ' comes from half a dozen voices. Arthur's cheer
settles the doubt. Then another hound challenges. ' Where's
Arthur ? What are the hounds doing ? Good Heavens, why
Arthur is going out at the top! How the deuce did he get
there ? ' Happily a local sportsman with an expression of calm
satisfaction comes to the rescue with ' All right, gentlemen, get
you back to the meet as quickly as you can, or the hounds
will go without 'ee.'

We turn our horses' heads, beat a retreat up the slippery,
narrow lane, find three-fourths of the field standing by their
horses, and chatting as cool as cucumbers. 'We have done
something foolish, but what it is I can't explain,' says a cynical
sportsman, who has just arrived from the bottom, his horse's
flanks heaving as though the labours of the day have already
been more than he cares for.

Presently, a smart groom arrives on a quick blood-like little
horse, and loses no time in communicating to his lordship that
Arthur has stopped the hounds just outside the cover on the
round hill. All then is bustle and excitement. The barn

58 HUNTING.

doors are thrown open, his lordship gives a shrill blast from his
horn, and the whole pack rush down the steep hill after him at
a pace that is particularly unpleasant to all but the native
sportsmen and their horses. ' That's the best way, my lord
right up the road ! ' says a farmer on a pony. The hint is taken,
and the summit of the wood is gained in less than five minutes
from the start. There is Arthur, impatient as the hounds. He
gives one cheer, claps them on the line before a third of the
field has reached the open, and keeps driving the pack on at
their best pace. The ground is uneven and rugged, but the
pace is good, and the hounds are drawing away from the horses.
On yonder hill Arthur views the quarry running westwards to
the inclosed country, where he is lost to sight. The local
sportsmen make the best of their way to the point where he was
last viewed, while the veteran huntsman and the hard riders
drive their horses along in pursuit of the pack.

On the crest of the hill they throw up, but Arthur will not
let them rest. Sticking his spurs into his horse, and giving a
couple of twangs with his horn, he gallops at their head to the
inclosed country. There the hounds hit off the scent, and
race parallel with the moor road for a couple of miles, when a
turn at right angles down to the bottom fills the minds of the
timid horsemen with amazement. "Tis no use going there,' is
proclaimed far and wide. Yet the hounds go, and they who
wish to see the end must follow suit.

At the bottom is a bog, from whence flows a small stream.
The hounds are at fault again. Eager eyes are straining to
discern the 'slot.' None is perceptible. ' He's gone right on,'
chime in those who are well mounted. 'What has Arthur
gone back for ? ' He has seen the slot fifty yards back point-
ing backwards A shout soon proclaims that the stag is seen
in the pool down the stream. The hounds interpret the mean-
ing of that shout correctly, and race off. But before they can
reach him, he rises from the pool, or ' breaks soil ' in the
fullness of his strength and majesty, and with the drops of water
trickling from his neck and belly, he races back to the moors,

BEASTS OF THE CHASE.-THE STAG. 59

apparently as fresh as though he had only just been roused.
The cunning sportsmen are seen galloping back to meet us.
The day is theirs. They will have it all to themselves yet,
' Ah ! it ain't over yet ! ' says a farmer on a little sandy-looking
grass-fed horse that was galloping more easily than we liked.
The hounds show now how they can race when they are on
good terms with their quarry. ' A horse down.' ' Yes, there
he is, to the right.' ' What brought him down ? ' ' He is
pumped out, like many others.' Still, Arthur on his chestnut
seems tied to his hounds, and we follow him as nearly as we
can to the edge of a large cover, and down a steep path, until
we see him pause. Here come the hounds straight to us, with
the stag not twenty yards ahead of them.

He crosses the path at a bound. Like lightning Arthur
presses his horse to the point, and shouts, ' Tally-ho, back ! '
' What's that about ? ' ' Why, the hunted stag is lying close,
and has turned out another.'

About two minutes elapse before the hounds speak, then
there is a chorus of voices, and a crash down to the bottom.
All is silent again. We view him running down stream at a
sharp trot. But no hounds are after him ? Yes, they are ;
running in cover parallel to him.

' Forrard ! ' shouts the whipper-in from the opposite side of
the wood, and we gallop in line down a dry watercourse, full of
boulders and roots, until we reach a turn in the valley. Hounds
are off the line. We all conclude he has gone down in deep
water. But ' Tally-ho ! ' from the whipper-in assures us that he
has once more broken cover.

After struggling up the hill in line, and seeing Arthur
galloping away on his second horse, which has apparently
dropped from the clouds, we find that the time for nursing
our horses has arrived. Happily we are riding inside the
circle, and can see every yard of the run. Twenty minutes in
the open brings us to a long rocky ravine covered with brush-
wood, and glad enough we are to see Arthur casting his
hounds along the slope nearest to us. The hounds cannot

6o

HUNTING.

recover the scent. Minute succeeds minute. Impatience and
disappointment are written on the features of the few that are
with us. Arthur will not give it up. He takes the hounds to
the river, and casts them on both banks down the stream.
Then he brings them back, and casts them up the stream,
His cheery shout of encouragement denotes that he has seen
something. What is it? His quick vision has detected that
the large boulder in mid-stream has been splashed, and is still

To

1 His bead is down, and
his tongue out.'

wet. He knows the stag
has been there. He
presses on the hounds ;
they open on the right
bank, and run hard up
the ravine. ' He is getting
beaten now,' says a local
doctor, who has been well to
the front throughout the run.
our satisfaction, we see the stag
up the stream with hounds

running

close to his heels. They've got him
No, they won't have him just

now

yet. He's ' broken soil ' again, and is making for the open.
His head is down, and tongue out. He cannot hold out long
at this pace. The hounds know he is sinking, and race after
him with a dash that we have not seen them show before. He
turns in our teeth, runs down the slope again, crosses the

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE STAG 61

road, and plunges once more into the river with the hounds
all around him. The whipper-in and a farmer jump off their
horses, scramble from stone to stone until they get on either
side of him. He does not apparently notice their approach,
his attention is confined to the hounds in front of him.

In an instant his horns are seized, and his head bent down
and back ; while the ever-present Arthur approaches him in
front and delivers the coup de grace with the coolness and
adroitness of a Listen. ' Whoo whoop ! ' proclaims that life
is extinct, and his carcase is dragged by half a dozen of the
field to the bank. The slots are cut off, and gracefully
presented to two visitors by his lordship. The head is re-
moved, the carcase cleaned for the purpose of blooding the
hounds, and directions given for the distribution of the veni-
son. A splendid head it is, with ' four on top,' to add to the
fine collection at Castle Hill.

After running for two hours and twenty minutes, broken
by but few brief intervals for relaxing the strain upon the
respiratory organs of our horses, we willingly swell the number
of the first detachment bound for home ; and as we jog along
the moorland road we feel, as we have often done before, that
the ride homeward with sympathetic companions is by no
means the least enjoyable part of a day's hunting.

The conversation naturally turns on the ability of Arthur
and the high character of the pack ; and when we learn that by
their joint efforts over one hundred deer have been run down
in a single season, we are not surprised at the homage paid to
the Exford establishment.

The fact that the country is so well stocked with deer speaks
volumes for the tact and liberality displayed by Lord Ebrington
and his popular predecessor, Mr. Fenwick Bisset, and certifies
to the existence of an excellent understanding between all
classes of the community.

The destructive propensity of the deer must be experienced
to be believed. The majority of the farmers on the borders of
the moors suffer considerable and vexatious losses. These

62 HUNTING.

happily are fully and courteously recognised, the presents of
venison being in proportion to the damage sustained. At one
time many magnificent deer fell by the bullet of the poacher,
who maimed and mutilated more than he killed ; but these
atrocities were perpetrated during that period of demoralisation
when the country was not regularly and systematically hunted.
Such an unhappy state of affairs will, we trust, never recur.
We scarcely think it is likely to do so until existing Acts of
Parliament for the preservation of game and deer have been
repealed, and replaced by special Acts for the encouragement
and protection of the poacher.

THE FOX AND HIS HABITS.

We shall not be very wide of the mark if we describe the fox
as the 'spoilt darling of the nineteenth century,' and at the same
time as the most irreconcilable to civilisation of our fauna.

No one, so far as we know, has ever given the stoat or the
weasel, the badger or the otter, a fair chance of proving whether
by care and kindness and a regular diet they can be so far
domesticated as to refrain from destroying at all times and
seasons and out of sheer cussedness, what they may consider
their legitimate and lawful prey in the shape of flesh, fowl, or
fish. With the fox, on the contrary, the experiment has been
repeatedly tried that he can be tamed to a certain extent, as
regards contact with human beings, is undoubted. He may, if
taken as a cub, be handled, played with, and perhaps, though
he is not exactly lavender water at the best of times, may be
taught habits of cleanliness, sufficient to secure his admission
under protest to the house. Nay, more, he may be brought
to live on terms of amity with his natural enemy the
dog, or his very neutral ally the cat, but one instinct of the
savage state will always remain so thoroughly ingrained as to be
ineradicable. With poultry or rabbits he can never be trusted,
or, to speak more correctly, he can thoroughly be trusted to
pounce on and kill them. It is the old Adam, the nature which

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE FOX. 63

you cannot expel even with the handle of a pitchfork ; the
prongs, as used by an irascible henwife, may in individual
instances prove efficacious, without at all upsetting our theory.
That in his wild state he is the most petted of animals, the
only felon the condonation of whose felony finds favour with a
law-abiding public, is beyond contradiction. Hunted he must
be ; if he is to exist at all in England it is his raison tfetre, and
if consulted on the subject he would probably not wish it other-
wise. He thoroughly understands the sport in all its branches.
Pursuit by a terrier is looked upon as a friendly game of romps ;

1 In search of a supper.'

a merry-go-round with a pack of harriers (not too big) is re-
garded in much the same light, and it is only the pack of adver-
tised foxhounds (he is particular on the score of advertisement)
whom he considers really worthy of the steel of his cunning
and staunchness.

Of course he has to contend with incidental annoyance,
such as that of being coursed by a brace of greyhounds these
are soon settled by a stiff bullfinch of being shot at by a
shortsighted or over-enthusiastic gunner a much more serious

64 HUNTING.

matter; or of finding himself fast in a neglected rabbit trap,
the most serious case of all, requiring instant amputation by his
own teeth of the imprisoned limb ; but these accidents he
generally debits in his life's ledger as the drawbacks inseparable
from a nobly selfish career, so long as he is free, as in all
well-regulated countries he is free, from fear of poison or
other malicious conspiracy against his existence.

For the rest, who is there in these troublous times that
enjoys such complete immunity from the universal depression,
as the ' thief o' the world,' the chartered freebooter of our fields
and forests ? A certain amount of deprivation he may indeed
have suffered from the Hares and Rabbits Bill, when it first
came into operation, but he soon learned to recoup himself
by increased raids upon pheasant preserves, or poultry yards,
leaving the M.F.H. and the hunt fund on the one part, the
keepers and the farmers on the other, to adjust their differences
as best they could.

Broadly speaking, his hand is against every man and no
man's hand is, without due notice, against him. Hunting days
excepted, he parcels out the twenty-four hours after the manner
of most predatory animals, even after the fashion of the man
about town ; the nights he devotes to refreshment, plunder,
and love, the days to the luxury of rest and sleep, being ex-
tremely fastidious as to the warmth and dryness of his bed-
room. Of course it is annoying after a hard and perhaps
unsuccessful night's poaching to find the main earth 'put to,'
but is not this barring out a sufficient hint to his acute intellect
that he may look out for squalls on the following day ? And he
betakes himself with grim complacency to a hole under a hay-
stack, the top of an ivy-covered wall, a grassy bank, the shelter
of a thick gorse or thorn covert, or some other well-known
coign of vantage, where experience, or the excellent advice
of his vixen mother has taught him that he can see without
being seen.

Here, when a deep sleep comes upon him, he may be
occasionally taken unawares, but the due and lawful warning

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE FOX. 65

given from the up-wind side, in the shape of a blast on the
horn, the crack of a whip, or the huntsman's cheer, seldom
fails to arouse him to timely wakefulness.

If a regular old customer, who has more than once baffled
his keen pursuers, the tramp of the horse-hoofs heard from
afar will often suffice to put him on his legs, and cause him to
steal away before the smartest of whips can ' get round ' for
a view. Threading his invisible way as he well knows how,

' Stealing away.'

under bank or hedge, he leaves no sign or trace save the mys-
terious inexplicable clue which men call scent.

And by no better name could it be called. The French,
from whom we have borrowed many of our terms of venery,
say la vote or la piste, expressions which to English ears, at
least, fail to convey the idea of the ' ravishing perfume ' J on

1 I'ide the adaptation of the Bloomer editress in Mr. Sponge's immortal
tour.

F

66 HUNTING.

which the sport of fox hunting depends, and about which such
various and contradictory theories have been upheld.

For scent it unquestionably is which enables the hound to
follow the line of the fox, but from what portion of the frame it
emanates, whether it sometimes lies on the ground, or rises a few
inches above it, and what are the atmospheric conditions most
favourable to its development, seem to be vexed questions as
far from accurate solution as are those of the squaring of the
circle, or the precise date of the Greek kalends. This much
is certain that hounds will, on really good scenting days,
carry as good a head, and run as unerringly fifty yards down
wind of the line, as they can when following in the actual track,
showing that scent can be diffused over a very considerable
space of ground ; and instances there are, rare but well authen-
ticated, where hounds have been laid on to a spot where the
fox has been seen to pass, and have failed to show even an
indication of feathering, yet on being brought back to the same
place after an interval of five or ten minutes, have taken up the
line and gone away at score, though it was absolutely impos-
sible that a fresh taint could have been left ; thus making it
appear that scent may be held in suspense, or rise for a short
period above the reach of hounds' olfactories, and then settle
down again. Our own experience leads us to believe that
scent in a great measure depends upon the individual animal,
but, as we cannot sustain our conviction by scientific proof, we
refrain from arguing upon it.

On these, as on many other interesting points, the fox could
give us trustworthy information. He and he alone knows the
secret of his scent, and by his knowledge he doubtless regulates
his movements ; he is not, however, of a confiding nature, and
for the sake of his own security, and for other obvious reasons,
he remains dumb.

So manifold are the devices of the fox for eluding his
pursuers, that volumes might be filled with the stories of his
cunning, and of the skill and presence of mind with which he
extricates himself from apparently hopeless difficulties ; what-

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE FOX. 67

ever he may feel he. never looks flurried, and whether swinging
with his long easy stride over the first field, in the full vigour
of freshness, or crawling along with his back up as the pack
breaks from scent to view, he presents ever the same resolute
appearance of knowing exactly what he means to do next
though, in the latter case, his meaning is limited to a grim
determination to make his teeth meet in the first hound that
lays hold -of him, and to quit life and grip together. But all
runs do not terminate with a tragedy, and considering the
craft and resources of the hunted animal, we can only marvel
at the perseverance and science which bring so many foxes
fairly to hand during the course of a season.

Gifted with speed, for a few furlongs, at least, in excess of
that of the fleetest foxhound, our hero, save in exceptionally
open countries, is not long in bringing the pack to their
noses ; to get out of sight is his first care, and, even on the
downs, his instinct at once shows him how to avail himself of
pays acddente in order to break the view ; of ploughmen and
shepherds he takes his chance he sees them long before they
see him, and, if chased by the dogs of the latter a liberty
which is seldom carried to close quarters he comforts himself
with the reflection that more foxes have been lost than killed
through the interference of an over-zealous cur.

Strongly inclosed or wooded countries naturally afford the
fullest opportunities for the exercise of his wiles and dodges ;
with the carte du pays at the tips of his pads, he knows every
dry ditch, watercourse, meuse, or run where he can slip easily
along, but where the hounds must file or force their way, and
if he takes to water, which he can do like an otter, we may feel
pretty sure that he has no struggle on getting out, though the
honeycombed ledge which gave him foot-hold crumbles away
at the first touch of his heavier-footed pursuers.

With a sidelong climb he can surmount most park walls,
and he can run up a tree like a cat, if the bark be rough and
the incline slightly in his favour, but this is a trick which he
does well not to try too often, for if a fox takes to perching, he

F 2

68 HUNTING.

is sure to be ' tree'd ' at last, and a drop of fifteen or twenty
feet, land he never so lightly, is neither bracing at the com-
mencement, nor restorative towards the end, of a run.

One bred in the neighbourhood of a country town, soon
makes himself acquainted with the ins and outs of every pig-
stye and hovel about the place ; he can thread a suburb like a
rate collector. Wearying to the hounds and exasperating to
the huntsman, such an animal is appreciated only by the
publicans, who on occasion of a town hunt, glean a goodly
harvest from the drinking division, which always furnishes a
considerable contingent in every field of horsemen. Adven-
turous wanderer though he is, and much as we admire his
courage, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the fox is some-
what too apt to seek ignoble refuge beneath the surface of the
soil, and, however diligent the earth stoppers, however carefully
grated the old stone drains, some underground lurking place
always seems to have escaped man's observation, though duly
noted by the retentive vulpine memory as open and good at
need.

Gone to ground ! Who-whoop ! It is neither one thing
nor the other, and the spirit of the chase is chilled. Then
follows the question, What shall we do with him ? If the
sanctuary is a short drain, or culvert, with two ends to it, and
the terriers are handy, a bolt may be speedily effected ; a squib,
a charge of powder from a gun, or hydraulic pressure, where
there is a slight stream of water which can be dammed and
suddenly sluiced down upon the refugee, will equally serve the
purposes of what we may call legitimate eviction ; but against
prolonged disinterment by a gang of labourers, ending with a
worry over the mouth of a yawning chasm, we at least would
fain enter energetic protest The stock arguments in favour of
a dig are almost too well known to need repetition, but have
we sufficiently considered them from the fox's point of view?

If the act of sepultus de se occurs early in the run, there
arises at once a chorus of 'Wretched brute ! Cowardly devil! Not
worth saving ! Deserves his fate ! ' &c. How do we know ? May

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE FOX. 69

not a brave fox have headache, or toothache, or dyspepsia, or
some ailment which he feels for the time incapacitates him
from doing justice to himself, and to the pack whose prowess
he has learnt rightly to esteem ? May he not laudably wish to
reserve himself for some future day, when, in the full vigour of
matured strength and perfect health, he will be ready to try
conclusions over that ten-mile point which is recorded in the
annals of his county hunt to have been safely traversed by
his predecessors ?

Who can tell ? And why should we condemn him unheard ?
If, on the other hand, he just saves his brush at the end of a
good thing by going to ground a few yards in front of the
leading hound, we are told ' The hounds deserve him ; he was
dead beat ; sure to die in the night,' &c. All this may be true,
but he is a hardy, good-constitutioned brute, used to roughing
it, and will, no doubt, gladly take his chance of recovery from
over-exertion ; and as for the hounds, they get plenty of blood
in the course of the season, let them for once go without these
deserts ; they are perfectly aware that, though baffled, they have
not been beaten ; so why not spare him ? What he has done
once, he may, and probably will, do again ; and next time,
perchance, the euthanasia in the open shall reflect the more
credit upon all parties concerned.

Nevertheless, we are aware that it is good for foxes to
understand that subterranean fortresses are not absolutely im-
pregnable. We know also that farmers may grumble if the
cherished marauder is permitted too often to laugh at the
beard of the huntsman. ' Circumstances alter cases,' was a
favourite maxim with the late Lord Beaconsfield though we
forbear giving his favourite illustration thereof.

When all is said and done, the decision to dig or not to dig
must, and should be, left to the judgment of the master. He can
hardly be expected to summon a jury of his fellow-sportsmen
on the spot, still less to take a verdict from the down or up-
turned thumbs of the whole field ; on him and on him alone
rests the ultimate responsibility, let us hope that he may usually

7o HUNTING.

incline to mercy, and that at any rate 'give him a chance,' may
be the final and peremptory order to the hunt-servants. We
may here mention that one of the most remarkable hiding
places we have ever seen resorted to by a fox was the large
wheel of a mill.

N.B. The mill was not going at the time.

Like other wild animals, the fox is supposed to be, and
probably is incapable of recognising his parents or offspring
after he has ceased to be dependent on them, or they on him.
If this is not so he displays at times an almost human intelli-
gence in subordinating family feeling to self-interest, for one of
his chosen methods of escape consists in diverting pursuit into
another channel, and to this end he hesitates not to push his
son or mother out of his or her lair, and to ensconce himself
therein till the cry has rolled far away on the track of the
improvised scapegoat, when chuckling over the success of his
ruse he retires discreetly in the opposite direction. His know-
ledge of numerals being elementary, his thoughts are mainly
concentrated on No. i, except perhaps during the breeding
season, say from March to June for though hazy in his ideas
on the subject of monogamy he does to a certain extent recog-
nise his duty as a husband and a father i.e. he will do some
of the foraging, and act most fiercely in the defence of his
household ; such matters are indeed distinctly within the sphere
of his sporting and fighting instincts. The drawing the earth,
and other preparations for the accouchement he is supposed to
leave entirely to the vixen, than whom no more devoted mother
exists up to the time when, having taught them all she knows,
the family party is broken up, and the litter dispersed in the
early mornings of cub-hunting. This ' teaching them all she
knows ' is of paramount importance in the interests of sport,
and if they are not to show sport why preserve foxes ?

Educated by a watchful but not too indulgent parent in the
hereditary cunning and traditions of their ancient race, the
cubs soon learn how to take care of themselves in every sense
of the word ; but if while young they are deprived of their

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE FOX. 71

mother they may become as useless for hunting purposes as
tame cats.

It is not an uncommon trick with keepers, who, whatever
they may say to the contrary, all hate foxes, to kill the old ones
a few weeks after laying down, and to hand rear the cubs on
rabbits, rooks, offal, or even milk where it can be charged to
the game account.

Thus artificially raised, young master fox grows up an emas-
culate and almost innocuous animal. He would probably kill
the chickens if he got into the poultry yard, which he is not
allowed to do, but never having felt the pangs of hunger, he
has for the most part neither the wish nor the ability to destroy
game. When the hounds come, a splendid show of foxes and
pheasants dazzles the uninitiated. The huntsman of course
soon sees through the trick, and having blooded his pack easily
and liberally, goes away laughing in his sleeve, and gives his
master a hint that this is a good place on a bad-scenting day.
During the remainder of the season the field will occasionally
express surprise that the foxes in Mr. So-and-So's coverts
hardly seem to know their way from one quarter to another of
the wood in which they were littered ; but beyond this, scant
notice is taken, and the farce may be successfully played for
many years, and will be the only run likely to be witnessed.

But our theme is the wild fox, and to him we willingly
return, though before doing so we would fain guard ourselves
against a possible charge of injustice.

We have said that all keepers hate foxes, and we believe it ;
but there are unquestionably hundreds of honest servants who
loyally obey their master's instructions to 'preserve foxes at
any cost.'

It is difficult to say what a fox will not eat ; rabbits and
game probably form the highest, beetles, mice, and even frogs,
the lowest scale in his dietary. He is said to be partial to
water hens and water rats, and he is certainly fond of frequent-
ing withy beds, river banks, or low-lying grounds where the
amphibii do mostly congregate ; though he does not succeed

72 HUNTING.

in making any appreciable diminution in their numbers, he will
kill common rats for sport like a terrier, and may in times of
famine eat them. But it is not a food after which he hankers.

Raw horseflesh is about the most deleterious article he
can lake into his larder, though often put in his way to save
game. It is apt to produce mange, the only malady from
which, as far as is known, foxes frequently and seriously suffer.
This dire complaint may, and no doubt does arise, from other
causes, such as over-exertion followed by privation and ex-
posure to wet, but however he may contract the disease a
fox once really mangy is a misery to himself and a source of
contagion to others ; he had better be destroyed at once,
though the precedent of a sentence of death by shooting is at
all times a risky one to establish.

There is no rule without an exception, and this may be
made in favour of a heavy but mangy vixen she does not
necessarily infect her young, though she herself remains in-
curable.

Habitual criminal as he is a felon of the deepest dye the
fox, like the devil, is not quite so black as he is painted, and
sins are laid to his charge, of which he is wholly guiltless ;
was it Mr. Jorrocks or another of Surtees's sporting celebrities
who received a bill with request for immediate payment for a
' young bull and ten acres of vetches,' said to have been con-
sumed by ravenous Reynard? Such items as these are, perhaps,
not often debited to his account, but the accusation of lamb
slaughter, false as it is frequent, has been brought against him
in every county in England. That he will eat a dead lamb or
sheep which has been thrown out of the fold, just as he will
devour any other carrion is undeniable ; that he even attacks
them when alive we believe to be a convenient fiction of care-
less servants. Let the consigne to the shepherd be : ' Tie up
your own dog at night, and take care that no other curs come
near the place,' and it may safely be asserted that the flock
will be free from death by violence.

It is true that foxes hang about ewe-pens at night for the

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE FOX. 73

sake of the cleanings and offal which they delight in, and
mangy or dying ones creep into the folds for warmth, and
l;hese facts have given a show of plausibility to the tales of the
slanderer. In the hatching season, the fox commits much
havoc amongst the sitting birds, and though there is a prevail-
ing belief that the hen partridge or pheasant can while on her
nest retain her scent, so as to give no indication of her presence,
game preservers would do well not to trust to this oft-exploded
fallacy, but to give orders to surround such nests as are known
with paper or tow, steeped in a mixture of tar and assafcetida,
a preparation which does to some extent fend off the foxes.
Nevertheless it not unfrequently happens that a wholly unpro-
tected hen pheasant rears and takes away her brood from close
proximity to a breeding earth, and farmers have been known to
declare that they like having a litter hard by the yards, as the
fox prefers foraging at a distance from home.

We give this theory ' quantum valeat,' ourselves believing
that it has been founded on a few fortunate accidents. It
should be noted that fur seems to be almost essential to a
healthy condition of the fox's digestive organs ; it has at least
been proved to be so where necessicy has arisen for hand rear-
ing cubs, and the excreta of the wild animal will be found, on
analysis, to contain a large proportion of this ingredient.

We have endeavoured in this admittedly imperfect sketch,
to give the leading characteristics of the fox ; and take him
' all in,' if any of the carnivora are to be preserved for the sake
of sport, no other animal in the British Isles could answer the
purpose so well, or at all.

Owing to his strength and ferocity the wolf is out of the
question, even if he were not, as he is, happily extinct ; the
otter cannot be pursued on horseback, and the badger is a slow
bad traveller. We beg pardon of the two last-named worthies,
for classing them amongst the real carnivora. So to the fox we
are restricted, for hunting on a great scale, and small reason
have we to grumble at the restriction.

Fleet, and staunch, and cunning, he can test the mettle of

74 HUNTING.

the best men, horses, and hounds, in the world. He spoils the
rich with impunity, and leaves them to pay the costs when he
robs the poor. Long may he flourish. It will be an evil day,
when, the land being given over to ' Chamberlain and wanton-
ness,' the gun, instead of the horn, shall sound the death-knel)
of the fox.

HARRIERS AND THE HARE.

What is the harrier ? Well, the Encyclopedia tells us that it
is 'the English name for the hound used in hunting the hare,' and
it would be difficult to give a more definite description, for he
would be a bold man who would undertake to say that there
is now-a-days a distinct breed of this nature in the United
Kingdom, nor is it worth while to inquire whether there ever
was such a breed. It may be taken for granted that all harriers
have a very strong dash of foxhound blood in them, derived
either from immediate or more remote ancestry, and that the
packs composed of what are called true-bred harriers are those
whose owners have not wittingly purchased drafts from fox-
hound kennels, or renovated their blood by a cross therefrom.

On the other hand, many packs consist entirely of dwarf fox-
hounds, that being the simplest, most expeditious, and probably
the cheapest method of getting and keeping together a ' cry of
hare dogs.' That there is no difficulty in persuading them
to run hare, any M.F.H. who has attended to the enter-
ing of his puppies during the cub-hunting season will bear
witness, but the drawbacks to the system are these : First, as
to size. Dwarf foxhounds, dwarf though they be, are apt
to be too big, it being difficult to obtain them under 21 or 20
inches (they often top 22), whereas harriers that are restricted
to their legitimate quarry, and it is of these only that we are
writing, should never exceed 19 inches, 17 or 18 being perhaps
a better standard, otherwise in countries where the regular sport
is carried on they may become an unmitigated nuisance.

All harriers, except perhaps the wariest veterans, will pursue

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE HARE. 75

fox as eagerly as hare, and though in districts where outlyers
are frequent, an occasional dart after a brush is inevitable, there
rarely results much mischief or a tragic finish ; when the
hounds are really small, they can usually be stopped before
a holding covert is reached, and on the whole do more good
than harm by moving the ' thief of the world ' out of the odd
holes and corners he is so fond of frequenting, and where he is
seldom discovered by his natural enemies. But let a pack of
2 1 -inch pure bred foxhounds get a fair start on a good scenting
day at a fox out of a hedgerow ; they are as likely as not and
why not ? to rip him up in five-and-twenty minutes, let the
green-coated master and his retainers ride never so valiantly ;
then when the first flush of triumph is over, there is shame
and remorse, and when the story gets wind the M.F.H. is
indignant, the owners of coverts are annoyed, and the sub-
scribers wax hot in their wrath, while all unite in cursing the
currant-jelly dogs. We wonder if any of our readers ever
heard the late George Payne give an account of how with his
harriers (for that Ulysses of sport had in his time kept harriers)
he once found a fox in a remote Pytchley withy bed, and ' killed
him on the top of the main earth at Arthingworth.'

Shame and remorse we may be sure he felt none, but even
in the paroxysms of laughter occasioned by his inimitable
description of how he ' cut him into collops with a penknife, to
tempt the confounded hounds who wouldn't eat him,' we re-
member thinking that no one but G. P. ' aurait su se tirer de
1'embarras.'

Secondly, dwarf foxhounds have too much dash, and when
the hare begins to double, and execute her manifold manoeuvres,
they keep over-running the scent, and casting themselves for-
ward, instead of trying back, which seems to be the natural
instinct of hounds descended from some generations of hare-
hunting forefathers.

The best plan, therefore, for a beginner is to purchase a
draft of old dogs and bitches, from one or more established
harrier kennels if he has any friends in the line so much the

76 HUNTING.

better and start breeding at once on his own account. He is
pretty sure to buy some curious specimens of the maimed, the
halt, and even the blind people don't sell their best hounds
but of one thing he may feel tolerably certain, that being so
many season hunters, they must have been good, or they would
not have been kept so long. He will get them as little related
to each other as may be, and in hunting he must at first take
his chance. Of all perplexing sciences commend us to harrier
breeding. Put a straight dog and a straight bitch together and
the litter is as likely as not to exhibit every shade of canine
deformity, whereas the progeny of a slack-loined dog and a
bandy-legged bitch may be as neat little fellows "as ever walked
the flags. Then, again, when the foxhound cross is remote,
wire-coats become very common, not that this is altogether a dis-
advantage, as it is a hardy, keen-scented sort, but the wiry ones
rather destroy the general smartness and uniformity of the
pack, and where the master is afraid of criticism he may object
to overhearing remarks about terriers and otter hounds at the
meet. But after all the main object is to show sport, and to
this end the most important thing is breeding for nose. Always
use a hound that can be depended upon on roads, especially
when roads are dry. He is a treasure, cherish him, and try to
reproduce him as often as possible, for in road work harriers
are apt to lose their heads, hurry each other, and act in a manner
entirely contrary to their usual nature ; it is wonderful how far
a hare will travel the highway if she be not headed, sometimes
for a mile or so at a time, meanwhile if there be no ' Mac-
adamite Mentor ' in the pack, the master suffers tortures as he
sees one hound after another whimpering in front ; he mistrusts
their jealousy, dares not stop \hemjusf yet, but has grave mis-
givings that Puss has turned off right or left some hundreds ot
yards back.

If on the other hand he has an old (or young) 'smell-
well ' absolutely trustworthy over the stones and dust, he can trot
gaily along, feeling sure that so long as he hears that well-known
tongue his quarry has not diverged from the beaten track.

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE HARE.

77

Colour is unimportant unless the M.H. has a crotchet that
way ; and, thanks to bloodhound crosses, some remarkable
varieties occasionally crop up. Blue-mottle is, however, the
traditional harrier hue ; it is now comparatively scarce, and we
are bound to say we never remember seeing a bad hound in a
blue-mottled skin.

aAvV "4: --V---^-^^-^' ,

1 One hound after another whimpering in front.'

The puppies should be sent out to walk about the end of
September ; when they come in depends a good deal upon the
forbearance of the farmers' wives. As many are sent home in
February it is not a bad plan to take such as are strong enough
out hunting for a short time in March ; they get more than an

78 HUNTING.

inkling of their business, and enter without further trouble at
the beginning of the following season.

If possible, never take out less than ten couples ; 12^ or 13
is perhaps the best number, and never more than 15 couples,
anything in excess of that complement looks ridiculous, and
when unravelling an entangled skein of work, a lot of hounds
only tumble over one another and get in each other's way.

It is well, however, to keep 15 or 16 couples of working
hounds ; bitches have an inconvenient knack of going to heat
at the same time, accidents occur in the field, and deadly fights
are not uncommon in the kennels. No more quarrelsome
fiend exists than your harrier in private life, and there is often
a Mephistopheles in the pack, who, having started a wrangle,
sneaks quietly out of the fray, and with grim contentment
watches his brethren rolling over in a compact mass, and worry-
ing to the death. To avoid this internecine strife, the hounds
should, where there is accommodation for the purpose, be
separated into small batches, especially at night, except after
hunting, when they will sleep together quietly enough and lie
warmer. Feeding is conducted on much the same lines as with
foxhounds ; the diet consisting of flesh and meal, and the
kitchen refuse is often thus utilised. In kennels where
economy is studied, Indian meal, though not so nutritious, may
safely be substituted for oatmeal. Harriers do not generally
travel such long distances to covert, or make such long days
as the fox-hunting packs, and can therefore do with less
stimulating food. In some few establishments Spratt's biscuits
are exclusively used, steeped for twenty-four hours in cold water,
but the mess should be warmed before it goes into the troughs.
Slaughtering and all the regular dirty work is of course avoided
by this system, which nevertheless is not popular amongst
kennel huntsmen. Bones and hides, where allowed, are
valuable perquisites.

The staff need not necessarily consist of more than two
servants ; one man can easily double the parts of kennel and
field huntsman, or he can whip-in if the master, as he usually

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE HARE. 79

does, hunts the hounds himself ; but it is advisable that there
should be some one in authority whose attention is not entirely
devoted to the pack, as he may and should, by example and
precept, prevent much damage being done to vetches, turnips,
seeds, beans, and wheat, though in the case of the last-named
the mischief is far more apparent than real ; still it must ever
be borne in mind that farmers who allow their land to be
hunted over by harriers make a far greater concession to sport
than is required for foxhounds, as a field may be crossed not
once or twice, but ten or twelve times in the course of the day's
diversions. Harriers should always be taken to covert and
brought home by two persons, otherwise they loiter and forage,
and not unfrequently pick up a scent, with the result perchance
of a sharp spin before the work begins, or in the dark after it
should have terminated.

In drawing, the hounds should be permitted to scatter them-
selves pretty freely ; it may look smarter to have them kept
within a short radius of the huntsman's horse, but the draw is
thus often unduly prolonged. They will strive quickly enough
to cry when the game is afoot, or when a line is touched fresh
enough to be spoken to, for though they may appear indifferent
they are in reality keenly observant of each other's actions :
witness the way they will gather as if by telegraphic signal the
moment a trusted comrade shows even the faintest indica-
tion of feeling a scent ; witness also their utter disregard of the
voice of a babbler, if such a one has, through misplaced kindness,
escaped his well-merited doom for two or three weeks. In
inclosed countries the services of the pedestrians may be most
useful in beating the banks and hedges; few harriers will thread
a hedgerow properly without the stimulus of a scent, nor is it
quite desirable that they should do so, as they are thus liable to
become rabbit hunters. We have never seen the experiment
tried, but have always been of opinion that a small hardy
terrier would be a valuable coadjutor for hedge work; he would
of course, be often outpaced, but if interested in the business
he would be sure to turn up whenever he was wanted. As to the

So HUNTING.

habitat of hares at various seasons, there are numerous theories,
but the farmers and their shepherds, if they will part with their
information, are the best guides. An occasional half-crown to
the latter is money really well laid out

Nota Bene. The old poacher who knows where ( a hare do
mostly bide,' is by no means to be encouraged in his researches,
if he does know he do mostly transfer that hare to his own
pocket, and if he stumbles upon one by accident he considers
himself entitled to a pension for life.

The game once started and hounds fairly in pursuit, the
maxim ' leave 'em alone ' can hardly be too rigidly observed,
when they come to a check either from over-running, from a
bit of cold scenting ground, from cattle foil, or from whatever
cause, let them swing and cast ; sit still and give them every
chance of rectifying their own error, or of puzzling through the
difficulty in their own way ; only when they are utterly non-
plussed should the huntsman go to their assistance. View
holloas may be, and often are, of material aid, but they are
always open to suspicion, especially when there is reason to
suppose that the hare is getting tired. Few men can dis-
criminate between a fresh and a beaten animal, but everyone
is absolutely certain that the hare he has seen is the hunted one.
In cases of doubt it is best to send the whip quietly forward to
interview the owner of the ' voice crying,' and to elicit as far as
possible from what direction the hare was coming when last
seen, which way was her head, and where the hounds were when
she was viewed. The remarkable answers usually given to
these apparently simple questions would drive a public-school
examiner into a lunatic asylum. Above all things, never try to
lift harriers when they are really running. In the attempt to
cut off a corner and hasten the desired catastrophe, many a
hare has been lost which would otherwise have succumbed in
the course of a few minutes. If harriers get their heads fairly
up, they take far longer to put them down again than do fox-
hounds, who will stoop almost as soon as their huntsman ceases
cheering and galloping. The field should never be allowed to

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE HARE.

81

press on the pack if it is possible to prevent them, which it is
not. Harriers hate being crowded by horses, and if met by
them will often appear to check on purpose, and try back or in
any direction but the one in which they were running. Then
the huntsman should catch hold of them at once, get the coast
clear, and cast beyond the scene of opposition. Also on bad
scenting days, when hounds hang and potter and are inclined
to run back and rejoice over spots which have been favoured

'The field should never be allowed to press on the pack.'

with special marks of the hare's attention, the huntsman or
master will do well to ride at a walk right on to them and keep
gently pressing them forward, but this must be done with great
caution and observance of the older hounds. Mysterious are
the ways of Puss and marvellous her workings. She may be
squatting within a dozen yards, having run her foil two or three
times before throwing herself to one side and down ; and
squatting she appears to be, as far as harriers are concerned,

G

82 HUNTING.

scentless and invisible ; they will walk over her, jump over her,
and even step upon her, but so long as she remains motionless
they take no more heed of her than of the turnip or clod under
which she is crouching.

The interference of the amateur or volunteer huntsman with
his uncouth noises and grotesque gestures must at all times be
sternly repressed. Was there ever a happier rebuke than the
one administered by the late Sir Richard Sutton to a stranger,
whom he found gesticulating with outstretched fingers to the
puzzled pack ? ' When you have quite done feeding your
chickens, sir, perhaps you will allow me to cast my hounds.'

Hares are weaker, and come to hand far more readily before
Christmas than later on in the season ; January, February, and
March, being the months when the best sport may be looked
for. Though running in rings of more or less circumference is
the rule, there are occasions when a hare of exceptional stamina,
usually an old Jack, will travel a four or five mile point in a
style which would do credit to a fox ; these are of course the
red-letter days which can only be expected to occur at most
three times during the year, though a series of lucky changes
may sometimes give the same result as to distance, and appear
the same thing to the majority of the field.

The ' amari aliquid ' inseparable from all sport ' surgit ' in
the one of which we are writing, at the death of the hunted
animal. There is no more pitiful, more helpless object than a
thoroughly tired-out hare, hopping the last fifty yards of her
career, in front of the pack. Contrast this spectacle with that
of a fox beaten to a stand-still in the middle of a field, and
the leading hound just running into him. We know at least
which of this pair looks the most afraid.

Yet hares, if they are to be hunted at all, must sometimes
be killed ; they have at any rate a better chance with harriers
than before a brace of greyhounds, or a shot-gun, and it is not
wise for the pursuer too closely to analyse the feelings of the
pursued.

In performing the last rites, the paunch is a sufficient reward

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. THE HARE. 83

and encouragement to the hounds. The corpse should be
given to the farmer on whose land the raw material was found,
and the ears are the best trophy to retain, and nail up in the
kennel.

To sum up Enthusiasm for hare hunting will be felt only
by those who are thoroughly interested in the patient working
of hounds ; seldom encumbered with a large field of horsemen,
they can be watched without riding in the huntsman's pocket,
or otherwise interfering with his proceedings, while to the
ardent youth who is fond of jumping the facilities for breaking
his neck, or his horse's back, over a cramped country after a
pack of harriers are simply unequalled ; and the more cautious
rider who prefers cantering from gate to gap, will in eight days
out of ten, receive ocular demonstration of the truth of the
French proverb, ' Tout vient k temps k qui sait attendre.'

We will conclude by quoting a remark of an eminent sports-
man Mr. George Lane Fox, whom we once heard asked his
opinion of hare hunting. He replied with his most courtly sneer :
' I have always understood it to be a most scientific amusement.'
There is many a true word spoke sarcastic !

BEAGLES HUNTED ON FOOT.

The subject of hare hunting would be incomplete without
some few remarks upon hunting the hare with beagles followed
on foot It is a pretty sight to see a merry ' cry ' of these little
fellows at work, and those who are not familiar with beagles
would be surprised at the amount of sport which a pack,
followed on foot, can show, when the chase is properly con-
ducted. It may be useful to enumerate some of the most
essential points to be observed by anyone desirous of starting
a pack of these diminutive hounds.

First of all comes the question of what stamp of hound is
best suited to the diversion. This will necessarily vary some-
what with the country over which it is proposed to hunt, but
the two chief points to look to are steadiness and endurance,

84 HUNTING.

and these two points are of equal importance in any country.
Steadiness can only be ascertained by experience ; for until you
see a hound at work, you cannot say whether he is steady or
riotous, but with regard to endurance there are a few points which
may be incidentally noted. Weedy hounds are always very
objectionable for two reasons. They are likely to be too fast
in the first burst, and will almost invariably tire. The hounds
then must be stoutly built, and tor the rest their points should

1 A merry cry of the little fellows at work.'

resemble as nearly as possible those of a foxhound. It must,
however, be observed that nothing but careful breeding will
produce a really level and uniform pack. You may, with judg-
ment and some luck, get together a lot that will show sport even
in your first season ; but they will not possess that level uni-
formity which breeding will alone accomplish.

Experience has shown that no pack under fourteen inches
will show real sport and account for their hares in any country,
while in very strongly fenced lands, over heather, and in a fen

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. BEAGLES. 85

country the standard may be slightly raised, as in such districts
as these the pack will not go so fast on account of the fences
or height of the heather, and more stamina is necessary than in
a less inclosed country. If the standard is less than this, a
strong hare will soon run the pack 'out of scent,' the hounds
will tire before half the day is over, and in cold windy weather
will be perished if they have to cross water. In very large and
slightly fenced fields or over the open downs the standard may
be lowered, as in countries of this sort a pack of beagles up to
fourteen or fifteen inches would run away from people on foot.
It must, on the other hand, be borne in mind that no pack
which cannot go faster than men can run will show sport and
kill their hares, while for the comfort of faint-hearted sports-
men it may be recollected that ' poor puss ' comparatively
seldom runs straight, and that a good deal of the fun may be
generally seen from a neighbouring hill.

These remarks upon the pace of the pack suggest one
precaution which should always be taken, wherever the ' merry
beaglers ' enjoy their diversion : one man on horseback should
invariably follow ; but it is essential that this person should
not be the huntsman, and that he should on no pretence what-
ever, except at the request of the master or huntsman, interfere
with the pack, unless the hare has entered a fox covert, game
preserve, or any tract of country forbidden to the hunt. This
horseman should have strict injunctions not to ride to the
hounds, but to hover on the outskirts of the line of chase,
always leaning to that side which is nearest to the forbidden
country, and his duties should be, in the first place, to endeavour
to head the hare away from that direction, and if he fail in that,
to stop the hounds before they enter such country.

If this precaution is carefully carried out, much of the fox-
hunter's jealousy of beagling will disappear, and it is certain
that any landowner or farmer who has forbidden the little
jelly-dogs to cross his property will be far sooner reconciled by
seeing his veto respected than by any apology offered after the
trespass (for such it is) has been committed.

86

HUNTING.

The huntsman should never be mounted, for a mounted
huntsman will always, in some degree, spoil the sport for those
on foot.

In the first place hounds will generally get away more quickly
and go faster with a horse behind or alongside of them, and this
is a little hard on the runners. The case is harder still at a check.
A man may have toiled bravely after the pack for some twenty
minutes or so, and is congratulating himself on their having
checked at last. Fancy the feelings of this poor fellow if the

'A little hard on the runners.'

hounds are at once cast at a hand canter, and hit off the line
before he has had a moment to recover his wind ! Worst of all
is it if, the cast having been unsuccessful, a holloa is heard at
the distance of some half-mile or more, and perhaps uphill all
the way. Off gallops the huntsman, and if he be excited may
add insult to injury by shouting to the brave runner to ' put
'em to him ' when he has hardly got enough steam left in him
to crawl after the fast disappearing pack. This is grievous
indeed, and shows the advisability of the huntsman sharing the
toil with his fellow-sportsmen.

It may here be of some assistance to make a few remarks

BEASTS OF THE CHASE. BEAGLES. 87

upon the best method of hunting a pack of beagles in pursuit
of a hare.

It must, of course, be borne in mind that the following hints
only apply to hounds perfectly to be trusted, and especially
that there are no babblers or mute hounds in the pack to
be hunted. A pack of beagles should not be left too much
to themselves. This sounds a somewhat startling statement,
and it must be at once conceded that too much and untimely
interference is a far greater evil than too little, but a pack of
beagles may be trained to hunt with as much dash as fox-
hounds, without losing any of their accuracy, and this will
never be attained by an absolutely ' let alone ' system. One
great step towards the attainment of this dash will be gained
by always encouraging the body of the pack to go forward
quickly ' to cry,' and by insisting on the tail hounds being pre-
vented from lingering, which is, as a rule, a fault with beagles.
When the hounds come to check, do not be in too great a hurry
to assist them unless you have certain information of the line the
hare has taken, and even then sometimes a smart pack will
swing on to the line and get to the point where the hare was
viewed more quickly than you could get them there by lifting
them, though this is not, of course, always the case. If then
you have no information, always allow your hounds to make
their own cast before you make yours, and watch proceed-
ings closely, for they will often cast themselves in the right
direction but not far enough to recover the line. In casting,
do not be afraid to cast forward in the first instance. If your
hare is forward, time is of far greater importance than if she
has doubled, and a good pack of beagles will always be found
to have a far greater tendency to swing back when the line is
forward than to swing forward when the line is back. Beagles
will never go many yards forward without a scent, but it is by
no means so certain that they will always take the line as far
forward as the hare has gone. This is particularly to be borne
in mind on bad scenting days.

For the rest, if you have a good pack, always believe their

8S HUNTING.

tongues rather than any other source of information with regard
to the line the hare has taken, leave them as much alone as
you can, so that you do not suffer them to potter, and if you
do take them in hand, do it as quickly as possible when you
are at it. Running after beagles is no child's play, if you
would be near enough to the little fellows as they crowd on to
the line of their hare to note those niceties of the chase which
may perhaps be seen to as great advantage with beagles as
with any other hounds. To accomplish this a man must be
blessed with a good pair of legs, good wind, and, above all,
he must have that determination to be with them which the
genuine love of the sight of a pack of any hounds in full cry
will alone give him.

CHAPTER III.

STABLES.

PRUDENCE, no less than humanity, should induce every man
who owns horses to do his best for them. If they are fit and
well they will do their work with comfort and satisfaction alike
to themselves and their master. By common care a score of
ills which afflict horseflesh may be avoided ; but common care
is an uncommon thing in many establishments. Horses get
' out of sorts ' as men do, except that in the latter case the fault
is usually with the sufferer, whereas in the case of the horse it
is with a careless, ignorant master, or a servant who develops
his master's qualities. The horse owner who knows nothing
of horses is in a false position, especially when he depends
upon a servant who knows little more, or who has prejudices
and absurd traditions which do as much mischief as sheer ignor-
ance. A horse may often look well in himself when he is really
not well able to do his work. A large majority of stables, for
instance, are a great deal too hot. Grooms like to keep them
so because when living in such an atmosphere the horses' coats
look beautifully smooth and glossy, and layers of fat which the
uneducated eye mistakes for muscle are perceptible. The groom
is pleased, the ignorant owner delighted ; but in spite of appear-
ance the horses are constantly going wrong. They catch cold ;
they do not clean out their mangers, and are knocked up when
an effort is demanded. They stop in the middle of a run while
other horses with rougher coats go steadily on, and their owners
are sorely puzzled.

The truth is that they pass their days and their nights in an

90 HUNTING.

atmosphere the breathing and rebreathing of which must needs
be deleterious. When a visitor enters the stable his nose and
eyes are equally pained, for the latter sensitive organs are
pricked by exhalations from the foul atmosphere. Yet this is the
air which the horse breathes not only all day when in the stable,
but all night as well ; for he has no change of apartment.
Fresh air is as necessary to him as to his master, but so little
does the groom believe this that he will sometimes even block
up the means of ventilation. A stable should be as sweet and

' A good deal too hot.'

clean as a house. Of course some animals are less susceptible
to the effects of foul air than others j just as some men thrive
in slums which would be fatal to those who have been more
carefully nurtured. As a general principle it may be laid down
that if a horse is to be healthy he must live in a healthy place ;
draughts are to be avoided, but ventilation and light, together
with exercise of a proper description, are first essentials, no less
important to him than sound food and wholesome water.

That no effort should be spared to find trustworthy servants

STABLES. 91

for the stable need scarcely be pointed out. Their shortcomings
here are less directly obvious than the shortcomings of servants
in the house under the master's eye. It frequently happens
that grooms have theories of their own as to the manage-
ment of horses. The animals suffer, or even sometimes die,
under these systems ; they are often not fit to come out of their
stables, still less to do their work ; but nothing will persuade
the groom that the fault is not with the horse, but with him ;
such an idea never in fact occurs to him. That his master can
really know anything about horses he cannot be brought to
believe, and too often the master does, in fact, leave everything
to his groom, who, he vaguely supposes, being a groom, must
know what is best. Very frequently the groom is a slave of bad
old customs and really knows nothing about any horse, still less
is able to understand the various constitutions and peculiarities
of the different animals in his charge. Perhaps it may be said
without injustice that the majority of grooms possess that little
learning which is a dangerous thing. As an example of this,
one winter four or five horses belonging to the late Lord Henry
Bentinck died so mysteriously that post-mortem examinations
were made. Symptoms of poison were detected, and it pre-
sently appeared that the groom had continually given them
small doses of arsenic to make their coats shine. It is most
necessary, therefore, that the horse owner should acquaint him-
self with the best principles of stable management. He will
not do well to trust too implicitly to hastily acquired know-
ledge, but great advantages are likely to arise if his servants
supposing them to be servants of the average sort, and not those
treasures of servants which are so rare, men who know their
business ^thoroughly and do it conscientiously perceive that
their master understands what he is about. An old proverb
says that ' It is the master's eye that makes the horse fat.' Fat
horses are not wanted in the hunting field, but the idea applies
none the less to the man who owns a stud of hunters.

The annexed plans of the Badminton Stables will convey an
idea of the accommodation afforded in this establishment. For

92 HUNTING.

these stables this at least may be claimed, that horses thrive in
them, though the Badminton horses most certainly do a great
deal of work. Days and distances are long in this country, and
it must be remembered that the seivants of a hunt tax their
horses severely. That horses should keep well and come out
fit in their turn is a strong argument in favour of their residence
and treatment. Here the stud is necessarily large. A pack
which hunts five days a week makes heavy demands on horse-
flesh ; but the rules which are found serviceable here will be
equally suitable for smaller stables.

All the hunters at Badminton are provided with loose boxes,
the dimensions of which will be seen in the drawings. The
fifteen feet of height to the ceiling line insures by the aid of
ventilation the needful supply of fresh air. A ventilator is fixed
in the ceiling line over every box, and air bricks a few inches
from the ground are let into the walls behind the boxes.
Windows are built on the division line of every other box,
and there are windows also on the opposite walls, the posi-
tions of which are indicated. A free and abundant current
of air is thus provided. The weather is rarely so bad that
these windows may not be opened at least for some part of the
day : if the horses appear to be cold, additional clothing is
put upon them. It was formerly the custom to completely
darken many stables during several hours of every day, the plea
being that horses could then rest better. The system is totally
unnatural and therefore totally wrong. Horses are creatures of
custom, and will rest perfectly well in the daylight. A dark
stable almost inevitably becomes a hot stable, and the abso-
lute necessity of air to keep a horse in health cannot be too
strenuously insisted on.

That a horse should stand day after day with his fore legs
on a higher level than his hind must surely be detrimental to
him. His back sinews and fetlock joints will be more or less
strained. This again is unnatural, and it may be broadly said
that whatever is unnatural is mischievous. The floors of the
Badminton loose boxes are therefore laid perfectly level, and

STABLES. 93

paved with large flat flagstones, much after the fashion of the
London foot pavement There are no drains of any sort in the
stables, and, as a consequence, none of those noxious exhala-
tions which are practically inseparable from the best system of
drainage. A plentiful supply of clean straw is of course spread
in every box, and replaced as necessity demands ; but it has
been found that no more straw is used now than was used
formerly when the stables were drained. The freedom which
boxes permit seems to have a very beneficial effect on their
occupants. Boxes cannot of course be always provided ; but
stalls should be as nearly as possible on the same principles.

By the side of the manger in every box is a slate receptacle
for water, which is kept always supplied. If the horse can take
water whenever he wants it he will drink very much less than
when it is brought round to him in a bucket at stated times ;
the difference in quantity is, indeed, surprising. To come to
figures, a horse will drink about eight gallons daily if watered
twice a day, and about five gallons if water is always in the box
at his disposal. The receptacles are water-tight, having no outlet
or plug of any description ; consequently there is no drip to
make the box damp. They are cleaned every day, a sponge
being used to soak up any water which remains when the groom
attends to his charge. The manger and rack are made of well-
seasoned oak, and along the top of the piece of wood which
forms the front of the manger an iron bar standing up about
an inch from the wood is fastened. The object of this is to
prevent crib-biting, a bad trick the frequency of which is a
source of astonishment to the horse owner. The animal doubt-
less takes to crib-biting for want of occupation, it grows into a
confirmed habit and often ends in ruining his wind, which
crib-biting always has a tendency to affect. This iron bar to a
certain extent prevents the trick, but it cannot be said that even
this is wholly effectual, nor can any method of curing the horse
be discovered. He is very much less likely to learn the trick,
however, if this precaution be taken. Manger and rack are
placed at such a height that the horse can stand in a natural

94

HUNTING.

LFU

Elevation of East End of Stable Yard.

* J^i tie oj Ceiling Ventilator.

Elevation of Front of Loose Boxes, showing Height of Ceiling.

Plan of Front of Loose Boxes.

ff eet

STABLES.

95

Reference to Plan.

A. Part of stable. 13 loose boxes.

B. Part of stable. 6 stalls.

C. Drug room.

D. Little coach-house.

E. Coach wash-house.

F. Fire engine.

G. Open yard.

H. Horse wash-house.
J. Cleaning room.
K. Saddle room.
L. Stable. 9 loose boxes.
M. Groom's room.
N. Stable. 18 loose boxes.
O. Stable. 20 loose boxes.
P. Covered pathway.
R. Straw house.
S. Hay house.
T. Granary with floor over.
V. Covered shed for unloading hay

and straw.
X. Water taps.

9 6

HUNTING.

position to eat his food. It is difficult to understand why
racks were formerly put high up above the horse's head so that
he had to stretch for his hay, while seeds fell into his eyes and
ears ; but so it was. The water taps will be seen marked in the
plan. Hay, corn, and straw are taken into the stables along a
covered way, and there is a covered shed for unloading pro-
vender. In the saddle room is a very simple and useful
invention for drying saddles. This is in the shape of a large

' Can stand in a natural position to eat his food.'

towel-horse, with iron bars set back some couple of inches,
running behind and half-way between each rail. The rails are
just sufficiently far apart to contain a saddle. Some fifteen or
twenty saddles can be so arranged on the saddle-horse and
placed before the fire to dry at the same time. Other expla-
nations will be found fully set forth in the plan.

It should be observed that these stables are modern. The
last row of boxes was completed in 1880, and the stables gene-

STAPLES. 97

rally, as a matter of course, are carefully designed and fitted
with a view to providing everything that long experience of a
hunting establishment shows to be necessary for the horse's
comfort and well-being.

The question of summering the hunter has provoked much
discussion. Some authorities are all for turning him out,
others for keeping him in his box, and in the multitude of
counsellors there is confusion. The old fashion was to turn
the hunter out for his summer's run, and of this fashion Beck-
ford was an advocate. 'After a long and tiresome winter,'
says the accomplished thinker of ' Thoughts upon Hunting,'
' surely the horse deserves some repose. Let him then enjoy
his short-lived liberty ; and as his feet are the part that suffer
most, turn him out into a soft pasture. . . . Can standing in a
hot stable do any good ? Is it not soft ground and long rest
that will best refresh his limbs ? I have often remarked that,
thus treated, they catch fewer colds, have the use of their limbs
more freely, and are less liable to lameness than other horses.'
Lawrence, too, the author of an excellent work, is here in
sympathy with Beckford. He would have every hunter turned
out ' to enjoy that best of all coolers and alterants, the spring
grass, the purifying elastic external air and the dew of heaven.
The holiday of a month or two out of the twelve is a kindness
we owe to the horse which so dearly earns it.'

This is exceedingly plausible. No man would deny the
good hunter that deserved repose and dearly earned holiday
for which these writers plead ; but the question is whether
the horse benefits, whether it is best for him, and as a
necessary consequence, best for his master, that he should be
thus treated. Beckford, it will be observed, pleads for the soft
pasture and condemns the hot stables. As already set forth,
we would have no stable hot ; and with regard to soft pasture,
where can it always be found during a hot dry summer ? The
picture of the faithful horse peacefully cropping the grass in some
pleasant meadow, his feet covered by cool dewy vegetation, is
a very pleasing one. But as a matter of fact what usually

H

93 HUNTING.

happens? The gnats and flies are an unfailing pest, the
meadow is too often parched and sun-baked. On this surface
the horse is tormented till, after much stamping, he gallops
about on the hard ground and too probably lames himself.
He gets sadly out of condition, as a matter of course, and
requires extra care and a great deal of time to make him fit,
when at last he is taken up. There are many objections to
turning horses out.

After a very hard season such treatment may at times be
advisable. As a rule the animal's box is the best place for
him. His shoes must be taken off, and abundance of good
litter is required, tan, sawdust, or some other material. If the
horse be left in his box, with his shoes removed, his food will
not, of course, be the same as that which he has in the hunting
season. Three times a day he may have green meat ; and
5 Ibs. of oats, in two feeds, will be sufficient. When August
comes, and his period of service is approaching, the green meat
must be discontinued. A dose of physic may first be given,
in the shape of a ball containing 4 drachms of aloes, or, in the
case of an animal of an exceptionally strong constitution,
5 drachms may be needed. Of oats 10 Ibs. a day may then be
given, with a liberal allowance of hay cut into chaff. Long hay
is bad for the horse's wind, though all grooms are fond of
giving it, partly from ignorance of the fact, and partly, no doubt,
to save themselves trouble. Every day the horse should have
an hour and a half of walking exercise. In September we
are assuming that the horse is not wanted for cub hunting, for
if he is he must be taken up and conditioned sooner he should
be walked and trotted for three hours a day, and his allowance of
oats increased to 12 Ibs. A handful of beans will be an agree-
able addition. A little meal may also occasionally be given.
In the Badminton stables a compound called Long's Reading
Feeding Meal, the manufacture of Mr. Long, a son of the
huntsman who was for so considerable a time connected with
these hounds, has been used with good results. If a horse be
a delicate feeder a little of this meal sprinkled on his corn will

STABLES. 99

induce him to eat. The corn may just be damped by flipping
a little water over it, and four or five ounces of the meal then
added.

The hard rider can scarcely expect to be carried satisfactorily
more than three days a fortnight, though a sound horse in good
condition may be brought out twice a week if not over-taxed ;
much, of course, depending upon the distance he has to go to
the meets. The treatment of the horse when he comes in from
hunting is a matter of the highest importance, for at this time, if
not properly cared for, harm of a more or less serious character
can very soon be done in several ways. A little oatmeal gruel
should first of all be given, but it is a mistake to provide this
too liberally. A large pailful of this gruel will distend the
animal and take away his healthy appetite. A gallon is quite
enough, and then, while he is being dressed, a little hay will
keep him occupied and be welcome. In most stables a
horse's legs are washed when he comes in ; but though this
may often do no harm, and in many cases dees none, it is
very much better not to wash the legs at all. They should
be thoroughly brushed and rubbed, and may then judiciously
be wrapped in flannel bandages. Twenty-five years ago every
horse at Badminton was washed with warm water when he
came in from hunting, and mud fever all over the animals' legs,
bellies, and backs was hardly ever absent from the stables. A
remedy, or rather a means of prevention, was sought ; dry
brooms, wisps, and hand rubbing were tried ; and since the
adoption of this system, even in the wettest seasons, there has
been no case of the fever. The experience of so long a period,
and complete freedom from what was previously a standing
plague, must be held to prove the efficacy of the plan. Equally
beneficial results are reported from very numerous quarters
where the practice of washing has been abandoned.

It is difficult to make white legs look quite clean without
using water, but if they must be washed the job should be
left till next morning, when they are cool the legs having,
of course, been treated as already described when the horse

H 2

ioo HUNTING*.

comes home. The dry flannel bandages mentioned above are
for horses that return to their stables with no symptoms of heat
about them. If the legs are hot, bandages should be put on
wetted with vinegar and water in equal parts. The value of
the cold water bandage is increased by the admixture of vinegar,
which has at once a cooling and hardening effect.

Anything in the nature of a cut or over-reach should be
carefully looked for and promptly treated. The wound of an
over-reach may be made by the toe, or the inner edge of the
hind shoe, which latter is often very sharp, and the injury, a
combination of cut, tear, and bruise, will speedily produce
inflammatory symptoms if neglected. The wound should in the
first place be carefully washed out with warm water, and a lin-
seed poultice then applied. When it is healing a little tincture
of myrrh may be used. It must by no means be assumed,
however, that the above treatment is suitable for all wounds to
the legs, such as broken knees. For such cases, and in every
case where a joint is injured, threatened, or affected, poulticing
is the worst course that could possibly be followed, and almost
surely productive of serious evils. It is not our purpose to
write a book on veterinary science. Injuries to joints, or par-
ticularly deep wounds, are beyond the stableman's province.
Veterinary aid should be sought, and the owner should be
exceedingly careful whose services he employs. Not a few stable
practitioners are, or until lately were, accustomed to fall into the
very error against which we are now cautioning readers. They
poulticed and fomented injuries to a joint, the result being to
destroy its vitality and insure permanent weakness or lameness.
Modern treatment of such cases is purely antiseptic. The
nature of a hunter's work renders it very probable that he will
be occasionally punctured by thorns, such punctures being a
frequent cause of lameness and swellings. The extraction of
the thorn is of course the first thing to be done, and if it cannot
be found, though it is known to be there, veterinary aid should
be procured. If the thorn be in the forearm there may be
danger of its working to the knee. Blisters may be necessary ;

STABLES. 101

but unless there are men of long experience about the stable,
such cases had better be confided to the veterinary surgeon. It
is not easy to be too careful.

That some horses have a predisposition to various diseases
is almost too much a matter of course to be mentioned, but it is
equally true that disease usually arises from neglect or mistaken
treatment. It is a not unfrequent boast with many men that
they have not had a veterinary surgeon in their stable for
long periods. They do not always say, and doubtless do not
always recognise the fact, that their horses would often have
been cured of ailments more surely and speedily if the best
medical advice had been obtained. Most grooms think that
they can perform a number of operations which they are totally
incompetent to perform, partly from want of practice and
partly from ignorance of the horse's anatomy and of the real
objects and effects of the treatment they endeavour to follow.
In serious cases, or cases which threaten to become serious,
it is best to obtain skilled advice ; but at the same time there
are many simple cures which any experienced stableman can
accomplish, especially if he really understands the cause of the
illness or injury. With many diseases of the feet as a rule
the consequences of bad shoeing the groom can deal. We
cannot do better than summarise the very clear and effective
remedies prescribed by Mr. Digby Collins in his work, ' The
Horse Trainer's Guide,' for those comparatively simple diseases
for which veterinary aid need not be sought. There is usually
one right method and many wrong methods of treatment for
every ailment, and these are perhaps nowhere more tersely and
lucidly summed up than in the book named.

Corns are the result of pressure on the sole of the foot, whereby
the blood-vessels are ruptured, giving rise to a morbid secretion,
which, if allowed to continue, will render the corn well-nigh in-
curable. The treatment will consist in removing the pressure and
stimulating the sole to secrete a healthy deposit of horn, by means
of the application of oil of turpentine and spirits of wine equal
parts of each, after having cut out the corn with the buttress.

This dressing should be applied fcr three consecutive days,

102 HUNTING.

when the horse should be shod with a leathern sole of the strongest
hide, and the hoof should be stuffed with tow, saturated with the
above dressing. This will enable the horse to resume moderate
work without injury to the corn. Corns most frequently arise
from shoes being left on too long, whereby the inner heel of the
shoe works in and presses on the sole between the crust and the bars.

Sandcrack consists in a separation of the fibres of the hoof,
owing to a want of gelatinous secretion. The treatment should
consist in cutting the edges of the cracks with a knife until the
crust is thinned so as to be flexible ; a poultice should then be ap-
plied for two days ; after which the whole crust must be dressed with
some stimulating application, which should be continued for some
months. The best ointment consists of equal portions of grease
and oil of turpentine for the first month, after which the turpen-
tine should be considerably diminished. The horse should have his
shoes removed. entirely, and be put to stand on a deep bed of tan,
fresh from the tanner's yard. Tan can be procured anywhere, and
is the only proper material for litter when the hoof is thus diseased.

Thrush proceeds from various causes, but inflammation of the
frog is the immediate cause. Some horses have very soft frogs,
which will become diseased by the application of cow dung as a
stopping, and contact with straw saturated with urine, which causes
irritation to the sensitive frog, and this contracts a diseased secre-
tion which exudes through the cleft of the frog. If allowed to go
on this will assume an ulcerative form, which will most probably
terminate in canker. This kind of thrush is best treated by care-
fully avoiding the exciting cause, by strict attention to providing
dry litter, as well as by applying a lotion consisting of 2 scruples
of chloride of zinc to the half-pint of water, three times daily.
When thrush results from plethora, cooling diet and alteratives
should be given, and the frog dressed with common tar; and if the
secretion does not abate, the chloride of zinc lotion should be tried.

When either fever in the feet or navicular disease gives rise to
thrush, the cleft of the frog must be left free, and the exciting causes
treated as recommended hereafter. A horse with a thrush should
not be ridden without knee-caps ; for if he bruise the frog, he will
generally fall and cut his knees severely.

Quittor consists in an internal abscess of the foot, forming in
sinuses. The parts surrounding the os coronas are generally en-
larged and puffy, and hot and tender to the touch, followed, unless
relieved, by a bursting of one of the abscesses at the superior border

STABLES. 103

of the hoof, from which an offensive and rather thin discharge
exudes. The treatment should consist in liberal but not heating
food ; but on the whole, as this disease may require delicate opera-
tions, it should be professionally treated.

Navicular disease, and nearly every kind of foot lameness laid
to the charge of this disease, consists in : first, inflammation of
the synovial capsule of the navicular joint, resulting from inflamma-
tion of the perforans tendon, which passes under the navicular, and
is attached to the pedal bone. It is met with in the very best and
strongest-looking feet, and the degree of lameness occasioned by it
is very variable. When ulceration occurs the synovial capsule is
absorbed, and the tendon comes into contact with the bone. The
horse will usually rest the affected foot when standing at his ease.
He will be much more lame on leaving than on returning to the
stable, the friction of the parts giving rise to a temporary secretion
of synovia. When the disease is at all advanced, all treatment
will be hopeless ; but, in the early stages of the disease, bleeding
at the toe, followed by emollient poultices, will be found beneficial,
when combined with rest in a roomy and cool box, well littered
with fresh tan. This disease is easily distinguished from laminitis
by the horse ' walking' perfectly sound. A hunter or steeplechaser
affected with this disease need not be despaired of, as such horses
will go over soft ground perfectly well and soundly. Only they
should be ridden to and from cover at a pace not exceeding a walk.
Indeed, on a road, no horse affected with navicular disease should
be ridden at a greater speed than a walk, since more or less pain
will be occasioned by the concussion.

Founder, fever in the feet, or laminitis consists in inflammation
of the laminae and the adjacent parts of the foot. It is caused by
continued exertion on hard ground, straining the crust beyond its
poxvers ; but the most frequent cause is an injury to the knee or
shoulder of the horse, on account of which he is fearful of lying
down, and thus the continuance of an upright position causes too
severe a strain of the sensitive laminns. In this case a lengthened
rest after the cause has subsided, on puddled clay during the day-
time, with a plentiful litter at night, will be absolutely necessary to
effect a permanent cure. Where the horse has to continue his
work, his feet should be placed in two buckets of cool water after
coming in from exercise, and allowed to remain there so long as
the horse feels disposed to maintain the same position. Mr. Collins
states that he has more than once seen horses neigh for the buckets

104 HUNTING.

and put their feet hurriedly into them of their own accord imme-
diately they were placed before them. The softening of the hoof
by water, thereby causing increased pliability of the crust, dimi-
nishes the pain occasioned by the want 'of room for the expansion
of the blood-vessels ccnsequent on inflammation. The symptoms
will be marked by the horse standing with his hind legs in a much
more forward position than usual, for the purpose of relieving his
fore feet of their proper proportion of weight. If the foot be felt
it will be discovered to have an unusual degree of heat, and if
pressed or squeezed by a pair of pincers an unusual flinching will
be perceptible. On running him out, the weight will be thrown
principally on the heels a marked contrast to the symptoms of
navicular disease, in which the toes are almost the only parts of
the feet placed on the ground when the horse trots. Bleeding is
certainly not advisable where the inflammation is not very acute ;
since it weakens the foot so much that it will be unfit for hard
work for many weeks afterwards. The food should consist of bran
mashes and a little hay ; and, although a violent purge should be
avoided, when the inflammation runs very high, laxatives should
be freely administered ; the best dose being 2 drachms of emetic
tartar and half an ounce of nitre, given every day for a week.

A very common source of trouble arises from cracked
heels, due generally to overwork in an unfit condition. Glycerine
or vaseline should be carefully applied to the seat of this very
painful disease ; this, with liberal diet and abstinence from
work, will in time effect a cure.

Swelled legs, another evil from which many horses suffer,
usually arises from over-work and under-feeding or from work-
ing animals when they are unfit. The remedy is the removal
of the exciting causes.

Colic is of various kinds, and due to various causes, the
precise nature of which it is most essential to discover. A
homely but often effective remedy is a quart of warm ale 'con-
taining a glass of spirits and a tablespoonful of powdered
ginger. A dose of aloes may be tried if relief is not obtained ;
'and should the illness still be obstinate, 2 ounces of tincture of
opium in a pint of water may be administered. If this does
not bring about a cure it will be well to consult the surgeon,

STABLES 105

ror the animal may be suffering from obstruction, twisted bowel,
hernia, enteritis or some grave disease.

For every reason the question of saddling is of the very first
importance ; that is to say, a well-fitting, well-kept saddle is a
first essential to the comfort of the horse and his rider. In
connection with horsemanship we hear much, and most properly,
of 'hands.' A moment's reflection will show that hands are
mainly dependent on seat, and seat is greatly influenced by
saddle. Can there be any doubt of this ? A man firmly, easily,
and comfortably seated in a chair, can pen the most delicate
line with great precision. Put him in a jolting carriage, or on
some insecure and unsteady seat, and he cannot direct his hand
with accuracy. The same rule applies to seat in the saddle :
unless it be firm, easy, and comfortable, the nicety of touch on
the bridle which will ' humour it like a silken thread ' cannot be
acquired. A firm seat, totally independent of bridle, and to a
great extent independent of stirrups, is the foundation of all
good horsemanship. By a well-fitting saddle, it should be added,
a saddle that fits both horse and rider is meant.

The choice between plain and padded flaps must be left to
the discretion of the rider. At Badminton plain flaps are the
invariable rule. They, no doubt, make the horse's forehand
look better, and give a freedom to the rider's leg which the
padded flap does not permit. Men who are accustomed to
the older fashion usually feel more comfortable, however, with
this support for the knee. Great care must at all times be
taken to see that the stuffing is thoroughly dried and free from
lump. The perspiration which is absorbed into the receptive
stuffing makes it most necessary that the saddle should be
beaten and brushed, as well as dried. Neglected saddles are
a constant source of warbles, sitfasts, and sore backs in
general, evils which are also very frequently induced by the
fact of the saddle being too short for the rider, thus bringing
undue pressure on the cantle. Cold water will generally
effect a cure, if the sore be taken in time. If it be bad,
poulticing will relieve and cure the injury, absolute rest being

ic6 HUNTING.

of course indispensable ; and in all cases where inflamma-
tory symptoms show themselves laxative food, green-meat,
gruel, and bran mashes must replace the allowance of corn.
It may be added that the fit of a saddle depends upon the
suitability of the shape of the tree to the back of the horse.
Excessive stuffing is bad. A man should be as near to his
horse as possible.

Into the question of bits we cannot possibly here enter at
length. It may be briefly remarked, however, that if a bit
does not seem to be sufficiently severe to stop a horse, one that
is less severe may wisely be tried. The ordinary double bridle
is, as a rule, the best for hunting. The sportsman will look to
his gear before he mounts. Comfort to his horse will mean
comfort to himself, and he will therefore see that the snaffle lies
lightly on the bars of the horse's mouth, and that the curb is
neither inconveniently tight nor too loose to be effectual if wanted.
There is no lack of severe bits of all descriptions, but the use
of them generally implies bad horsemanship or bad breaking.
Severe bits should be the last resource, to be used with the
utmost caution, and then only by the best riders.

It was remarked on a former page that whatever is un-
natural is mischievous, but allowance must be made for the
circumstance that a horse's life is not such as that which he
would lead in a state of nature. He would not have to bear
weight on his back, nor to travel for so many miles at a stretch,
nor to go on the hard road. Horses, moreover, are not in
digenous to this climate, and must be shod in order to fulfil the
duties of modern life. At Badminton the material for the
shoes is cut from bars of patent iron, which is sold in lengths
grooved for the reception of nails. The smith cuts off the
length he requires from the bar and fashions it into the shoe.
The reckless use of the knife is to be condemned : the exceed-
ingly and beautifully delicate structure of the hoof forbids it.
The farrier must take care that the frog comes well down to the
ground, so as to relieve pressure on the other bearing surfaces
of the foot, and where a horse has contracted heels, every

STABLES. 107

encouragement to expansion must be left. Patent shoes of
different sorts have been tried at different times, and in peculiar
cases some of them have perhaps peculiar advantages. For
hunters and coach horses alike, however, nothing has been
found to answer better than shoes of this patent iron, carefully
fitted and fixed. It is desirable that the day before the horses
go out hunting their shoes should be examined. As a rule
a set of shoes last rather more than a month, but constant
attention must be paid to the feet, as corns almost always
arise from the shoe being left on too long. No competent
smith need be cautioned to use only the best nails. A prick
caused by a nail which has divided, part going into the horn of
the hoof and part into the sensitive portion of the foot, may
lead to worse than temporary lameness.

In a large hunting establishment it may be roughly calculated
that one man can look after three horses. When the animals
come home from hunting everyone whose services are available
will lend a hand to dress them down ; three or four men may
be usefully employed on each horse. It is scarcely necessary to
remark that grooming must at all times be thorough. More than
the appearance of a horse's coat depends on this. Unless the
animal is diligently curry-combed and brushed, scurf will form,
close the pores of the skin, and affect the horse's health. A
bright coat, always supposing that it be properly obtained,
means a bright eye. It is easy to see, by moving a little of the
hair back and looking at the roots, whether the horse has been
thoroughly dressed. On first coming home after a hard day
particular attention should be paid to the horse's ears. Well
cleaning them seems to afford special relief, and as regards
the legs, friction has long been recognised as both a cure and
a preventive of disease.

In a chapter which is not intended to instruct the stableman
in the rudiments of his business, but rather to express a pre-
ference between disputed systems, the questions of clipping
and singeing need not be discussed at length. It is highly
desirable that horses should be clipped, for if they were not

lo8 HUNTING.

perspiration would accumulate and dry in the long coat, and
chills, together with other illnesses, would be invited. Many
years ago a barbarous custom of cropping a hunter's ears was
in vogue. The objectless cruelty was practised because cropped
ears were thought to give a game look to a horse, no consider-
ation being paid to the poor creature's sufferings ; and at that
period the horse's dock was a matter of very few inches. Happily
these savage ideas have passed away, and though many bad
and stupid fashions are revived, it need not be feared that these
will be among the number. When ear-cropping was common
it was usual to bleed the hunter before summering him, but
this absurdity, which must have cost our forefathers dearly,
since many horses did not survive the practice, is happily un-
known at the present day. There is, and there always will be,
something new to be learnt about the horse, as about the man.
Veterinary science, however, has made such great progress that
it must be an altogether exceptional case for 'which adequate
treatment cannot be found, while accurate general knowledge
is always extending. Horses are no longer bled as they used
to be at times when their vital forces required to be sustained
instead of diminished, and a hundred other ridiculous customs
have vanished. The most invaluable medicines for horses are
sweet stables, an abundance of sound, wholesome food, sufficient
exercise, and kind treatment. The horse is not entirely the
servant but also the friend of his owner, and friendly considera-
tion is his just due. A man who gives less fails to discharge
a debt of honour.

109

CHAPTER IV.

THE KENNEL.

IN a certain romance which most of us, probably, have read
at some period of our existence, if it has a little passed
out of memory now in the late Lord Lytton's ' Last of the
Barons' the old philosopher, Adam Warner, being suddenly
called upon to apply some simple surgical remedy, of which
his only knowledge is derived from the book in his hand,
exclaims in great perplexity, 'But the book telleth me not
how the lancet should be applied : it is easy to say do this, or
do that, but to do it once it should have been done before.'
He who addresses himself to the practical business of the
Chase, which includes, let it be remembered, a great deal
more than the mere getting across a country and encompassing
the death of his game he, we say, who addresses himself to
this business after having first mastered the written experience
of others and gained from them such wisdom as he can, will,
no doubt, buy his own experience cheaper than he who has
neglected or been unable so to train and prepare himself.
But he must not think to grow to a Meynell, or an Assheton
Smith, or an Anstruther Thompson, by books alone. ' Hunting's
a science, and riding an art.' All arts and sciences have
their own laws, which those who would practise them must
learn or abide by the consequences. We must not, therefore,
be understood to depreciate the value of books, which would,
indeed, be a most unwarrantable defiling of our nest. Neither
do we wish to feel our withers wrung by that sly hit of Beck-
ford's : 'All who have written on the subject of hunting,

I io HUNTING.

seem to agree in this, at least to speak indifferently of one
another.' We wish only to guard ourselves against miscon-
ception, and our readers against disappointment. And so to
our business.

As no man would think of buying a pack of hounds who was
not sure of a place to keep them in, we will begin with the kennel.
In building a kennel, as has been very pertinently observed,
there are two capital points to be remembered ; firstly, the means
of the builder ; secondly, the extent of his hunting establishment.
The kennels at Goodwood, for example, cost several thousand
pounds ; those at Woburn have, or had, a frontage of 455 feet.
On the other hand, kennels sufficient for all practical purposes
may be built on a much more modest and frugal plan from the
outhouses and barns that generally form part of the equipment
of every country gentleman's estate. Beckford, indeed, sneers
at their economy, though he is by no means wont to recommend
useless expenditure. ' It is true,' he says, ' hounds may be kept
in barns and stables ; but those who keep them in such places
can best inform you whether their hounds are capable of
answering the purposes for which they are kept.' And he goes
on to say that, as all our hopes of sport depend on the delicacy
of our hounds' noses, ' I cannot but suppose every stench is
hurtful to it.' This is very true. If a pack of the best bred
and best trained hounds in the world were turned to pig
together as best they might into some dirty outhouse or
diseased barn, it is probable they would not long be worth
much. But on the basis of such buildings kennels may be
fashioned sufficient to keep hounds in health and comfort,
which will practically answer all the purposes of Woburn and
Goodwood, and cost very much less than those princely esta-
blishments. Still, it is no doubt better, where adequate means
and space are forthcoming, that the kennel should be a
building of and by itself.

But on whatever scale, or after whatever plan it be built,
there are three essentials to be observed. It must be dry, airy,
and warm. Sweetness and light are as vital to the proper well-

THE KENNEL. in

being of the hound as we are so often reminded they are to his
master. Nay, it may be said that, in proportion, they are
even more so ; for, while some men do certainly in this world
contrive to get on without them, we are very sure no hound
can. It must never be forgotten that both the horses and the
hounds used for the chase are a \ery different sort of animals
from what they are in their natural state. Their state is one
not of nature but of art : a highly artificial state. They differ
as much after their kind from the nag who picks up his living
off a common, or from the village cur, as their masters differ
from the Digger Indians, or the aboriginals of the Australian
bush. The man of civilisation who lives in a damp, ill-drained,
ill-ventilated house will never be able to do his work properly,
even if he can get through life at all. And it is the same with
horse and hound. But extravagance is not an essential to
hound or horse any more than to man. He who hunts five or
six days in the week will naturally require a much larger and
costlier establishment than he who hunts two or three. The
conditions under which hunting is, one might perhaps say
must be, now carried on in the Shires will entail a larger out-
lay than will be found necessary in those less fashionable parts
of hunting Britain known as the Provinces where, however,
the sport, if less splendid, is not seldom quite as good. But
even in the former case economy can be and should be prac-
tised. Superfluities should be avoided as well as shortcomings,
and ostentation is in its way as distasteful and as injurious to
sport as parsimony. Hunting is certainly not an amusement
to be enjoyed for nothing, or even for very little, whether it be
enjoyed in the state of a master of hounds, or in the more
simple capacity of a private individual ; but it may be enjoyed
for very much less money than is perhaps popularly supposed,
and certainly is very often expended on it. Not every man
can go to Corinth ; but it is quite possible for a wise man to
get a good deal of pleasure less far afield.

The situation of the kennel is of first-rate importance. It
should be built, says Somerville,

112 HUNTING.

Upon some little eminence erect,
And fronting to the ruddy dawn ; its courts
On either hand wide opening to receive
The sun's all-cheering beams.

And he is right. It should stand on open and rising ground ;
not in a bleak exposed situation, so that the winds of heaven
visit it too roughly , but on the other hand, not in a hollow, or
on low-lying ground, or too much shut in and overshadowed
by trees. The Ascot Kennels, which have much such a situa-
tion, and are built moreover on sand with a substratum of bog,
long suffered from that mortal scourge which among men is
known as rheumatism, and among hounds as kennel lameness ;
nor was it till Charles Davis had a false flooring put so as to
admit a free current of air, that the evil really disappeared. It
may be here remarked, however, that in very many cases kennel
lameness is another name for kennel idleness, i.e. want of exer-
cise in summer and putting hounds to hard work unprepared
by horse exercise.

The material of which the kennel should be built, and the
style of the architecture must be determined, of course, by the
taste and the purse of the owner. But there is a good deal of
sense in Beckford's suggestion that it should have ( a neatness
without, as well as cleanliness within, the more to tempt you to
it.' For the same reason, he advises it should be as near the
house as possible. A chorus from a restless pack is, no doubt,
not an agreeable lullaby, rior is the smell of the boiling house
the sweetest of perfumes ; but there is a mean in all things,
and such a measure of distance between the homes of the
master and his hounds may be contrived as to avoid all un-
pleasantness to the former, while keeping the latter under his
supervision. Good servants are, probably, more plentiful now
than they were in Beckford's time, when the demand for them
is so much greater, and their rewards so much higher. Never-
theless, a master who leaves everything to his servants, whether
in house, kennel, or stable, is not likely to be so well served
as he who makes it understood that he knows how things

THE KENNEL. 113

should be done, and is determined to see that they are so
done.

When the late Lord Suffield undertook to hunt the Quorn
country in 1838, his first act was to remove the hounds from
Thrussington, where Sir Harry Goodricke had quartered them
a few years previously, to their present kennels at Billesdon.
He consulted Mr. Smith (not Assheton, though also a ' Tom '
Smith), who was then showing good sport in the Craven country,
as he afterwards did in the Pytchlcy, on the economy both of
his kennels and stables, and in Mr. Smith's admirable little
book, ' Extracts from the Diary of a Huntsman,' which every
fox hunter ought to have by him, the results of the consultation
may be learned. The precise cost of the work is not stated,
but we are told it was ' less than half of a previous plan de-
signed by a first-rate architect,' which would, however, as Mr.
Smith candidly adds, have been 'a. splendid building.' The
affairs of such a pack as the Quorn are of course conducted on
a larger and more liberal scale than every master of hounds
will either find possible or necessary. But for the interior
economy of a kennel, Mr. Smith's plan may well serve as a
model, those who use it of course making such modifications
as their wants and means will suggest As the book has for
some years now been out of print, and copies, as we happen to
know, not very easy to get, we make bold to lay this plan
before them.

HUNTING.

O Q

Grass court, inclosed.

THE KENNEL. 115

Explanations.

1. Young hounds' lodging room, 16 feet by 20 feet ; paved court,
18 feet by 20 feet ; also a door opening into an inclosed grass yard.

2. Hunting pack lodging room, 16 feet by 20 feet ; paved court, 18 feet
by 26 feet.

3. Principal lodging room, 16 feet by 20 feet ; paved court, 30 feet by
34 feet.

4. Principal lodging room, 1 6 feet by 20 feet ; paved court, 30 feet by
34 feet.

5. Covered court before feeding, 14 feet by 20 feet ; at one end a
cistern to supply the kennel with water ; at the other, a flight of stairs to
the feeder's sleeping room above.

6. P'eeding room, 16 feet by 19 feet.

7. Straw court after feeding, 22 feet by 24 feet.

8. Hospital for sick hounds, to be near so as to be fed often ; three
lodging rooms two, 6 feet by 6 feet ; the other, 12 feet by 12 feet and
court, 20 feet by 12 feet.

9. Boiling house, 1 5 feet by 20 feet.

10. Cooler, 3 feet wide.

11. Coals, 6 feet by 10 feet.

12. Store room for meal, 15 feet by 27 feet.

13. Straw house, 15 feet by 21 feet.

14. Bitch house, 6 feet by 15 feet ; court, 9 feet by 15 feet.

To this plan Mr. Smith adds the following remarks, which
are well worth reprinting :

All the doors, except those on the outside of the kennel, are in
two parts, which open separately, which gives the opportunity of
first looking at the hounds, and of seeing that no hound is injured
on the feet by the door when opened against it. And the feeder
can see better which hounds require to be fed first, on opening the
top door.

The granary for oatmeal is placed for convenience, and to be
dry, being at the back of the chimney to the boiling house.

The straw court, after feeding, is so placed, in order that the
feeder may turn out every hound separately, if desirable, until the
whole have been fed (this door should be in two, to enable him to
look them over, and see if any want to be fed again), where they
remain till he has time to walk them into the adjoining field. This
is a most desirable acquisition to every kennel, as it keeps the field
cleaner : and the droppings from the hounds make the straw

I 2

ii6 HUNTING.

valuable to farmers, which is taken from the lodging rooms, and is
otherwise useless. It is these considerations which make a farmer
think it worth his while to supply straw for the manure.

It is also desirable that the hospital for sick hounds should be
near the feeding room, or they are not attended to as they should
be, but be kept out of sight. Here the man has only to open the
top part of the door, and look in, and if a hound is in want he has
him in at once. This lodging room is divided into three parts in
case of any doubtful hound, by putting which aside in time, the
whole pack may often be saved from illness, or, a worse evil still,
from madness.

The door out of the young hounds' kennel into the grass yard
is intended to be open all day long, as it is most desirable that they
should have room to exercise themselves, when first brought home
from their walks, before they are under command, while by con-
stantly taking them to be fed they soon come to. The time they
are brought home is generally during the season when the men
have not time to take them out, even if under command, which
makes it so necessary for them to have a grass plot, inclosed, to run
over : and often prevents distemper going through the whole lot,
as is often the case when they are confined close together.

There are pipes to convey water to every kennel, with a tap
in each.

Artificial heat of any sort is to be entirely condemned. The
system of warming kennels by hot-water pipes is wholly mis-
chievous and wrong. Plenty of straw or fern should be spread
on the benches, and the warmth of the hounds' bodies as they
lie huddled together close to each other will give out sufficient
heat At no time should the top half of the kennel door be
quite closed.

It will be found very useful to have the benches made with
hinges, as Beckford advises, and hooks in the wall, that they may
be folded up while cleaning is going on. The necessity for the
most scrupulous cleanness in every part cannot be too often or
too strongly insisted on. This cannot be really preserved
without two lodging rooms. It is bad for the hounds to stand
shivering outside in the cold, while their one room is being swept
and washed ; and worse still for them to be kept in the room
which is being washed.

50

PLAN" OF KENNELS, BADMINTON.

130

A. Lodging Houses. B. Bones Store. C. Larder. D. Meal Houses. E. Store Closet.
F. Bitch Houses. G. Huntsman's Wash-house. H. Huntsman's J.aunclry. I. Hunts-
man's Cellar. K. Spare House. L. Stable. M. Dung Yard. N. Hounds' Bath.
O. Principal Entrance. P. Waggon Entrance. Q. Coals. R. Huntsman's House.
S. Boiling: House. T. Water Cisterns. V. Kennelmen's Room. W. Water Taps.
X. Feeding House. Y. Pump. Z. General Entrance.

iiS HUNTING.

The annexed plan of the Badminton kennels will show the
residence of a five-days-a-week pack. There is probably
nothing in this which, by the aid of its reference, will not be
readily understood. The hounds' bath is, it will be seen, placed
at the entrance to the kennels. It slopes down one side and
up the other, and through this every hound is driven when he
comes home from hunting, or from taking his walks in the park,
which he does two or three times daily. Some authorities have
filled their baths full of pot liquor instead of water, and Long,
who formerly hunted the Badminton hounds, used to set one of
his men to splash pot liquor over the hounds as they ran through,
the object being to make the animals lick each other, for the heal-
ing properties of the tongue are considerable, and slight wounds
caused during the day's work are thus benefited. Without this,
however, hounds will always lick as they lie on their benches,
the food which they sprinkle over their bodies while at the
troughs helping to induce the habit.

We may also here give a sketch plan and explanation of one
of these converted kennels which Beckford seems to condemn
altogether, and which, in his time, no doubt deserved to be
condemned. Had he seen the one here described he would
have written differently. The work was done cheaply, without
plans or specifications, by local men.

The original building was a long potato house, a granary, and a
wall, besides a yard. The building was tiled, but the tiles were
removed and the roof thatched, thatch being warm in winter and
cool in summer ; the floor was levelled with rough stones, broken
brickbats, &c., the whole concreted and made smooth on the surface,
with a good slope from back of lodging room right through to out-
side fence of yard ; a surface grip in concrete along outside fence of
yard running through all the yards to a drain outside the yard at
end, then conveyed through glazed pipes to the river. The height of
fence outside and round the yards is about 8 feet, 6 feet closely
boarded, 2 feet paled, and the same round grass yards. The alley
outside 4 feet broad with an outside railing 4 feet 6 inches high.
The alley is very useful as hounds can be taken from top yard to
feeding room without going through the other yard, especially for

THE KENNEL.

119

03 Q3

as

120 HUNTING.

young hounds if they bolt out of yard they are stopped by alley fence.
The beds for hounds are made of deal, two in each lodging house,
74- feet long by 5 feet wide, made to fit with length of kennel. They
work on hinges, so that they can be chained up to back wall when
cleaning out. The floor of lodging room is a wooden latticed
flooring of deal to prevent hounds lying on damp or cold floor, a
fruitful source of rheumatism. Two coppers, one for flesh and one
for meal pudding, are shown in plan, together with coolers, feeding
troughs, c. There is a loophole at the end of whole range of building
so as to let a top current of air right through. The top kennels are
quite new and a little larger. The grass yard is half gravel and
half grass. At the top of the old wall on the north side a paling
to heighten it has been erected. The kennels face South, top
kennels about South-East by East. The young hounds are gene-
rally kept in the top new kennels ; the old ones in the lower, dogs
and bitches being divided. The granary floor and walls half-way
up were boarded to keep the meal from getting damp doorways
are 2 feet 10 inches wide all through. The cottage at end was
there when the kennels were made, and now kennelman and two
whips live in it. The water supply is from a cistern which is filled by
horse-power from the river and laid on into all places. In each yard
is a trough of cast iron raised on two or three bricks. The other
part of the original ofthand farm consisted of a barn, a long shed
and outbuildings now converted into the following : Two small
kennels, one for sick hounds, one for bitches which it may be
desirable to separate from the pack, and coal house. The barn was
converted into a capital stable with a floor made of cement as in
kennels, but ribbed for water ro run off into surface drains. A long
row of buildings of the same height as kennels were made into a
forge, a place to shoe horses, a hay and straw room, a corn
room, a sleeping and mess room for stable helpers, a harness room,
a washing room with coppers for hot water. As to the cost, both
included :

* d.
Converting old shed, and making yard into kennels .158 7 6

Fittings, &c 56 5 6

Top kennels . . . . .111130

3 2 6 6 o

The stables c. &c. cost about yoo/. Two nice houses for hunts-
men and stud groom cost about 6oo/. the pair. It is necessary to
have a meat house for dead horses well ventilated. A new one was

THE KENNEL. 121

put up just outside the range of buildings at a small cost. Every-
thing in these cases naturally depends upon the convenience to be
utilised, but the above will at least convey an idea. The only fault
of the arrangement is the meal house, F, being so far from the boil-
ing house, D. 1

The kennels having been so far considered, we turn to the
question of their occupants. A hound's life, for working pur-
poses, is short. He begins to hunt as a puppy of some eighteen
months ; if all goes well with him he is perhaps in the plenitude
of his power at the age of four, that is, in his third season ; he
may last two or three seasons longer. Hounds have been known
to run at the head of the pack even in their seventh season ;
the judgment of their breeders in such a case is amply proved.
After their fourth or fifth season hounds usually begin to fail.
They do not tire, if of a good sort, but the pace bothers them ;
they are not so forward as of yore, though they still keep with
the pack and trot home with their sterns up. Every pack
must, therefore, be recruited annually, in proportion, as nearly
as circumstances admit, to the strength of the establishment.
About six and a half couples are sufficient for one pack, but
ten or twelve couples should be put forward and drafted down
to six and a half of the best after cub hunting. How then
should hounds be bred so as to maintain the needful supply cf
puppies from which to replenish the pack ?

The breeding of hounds, perhaps even more than the
breeding of horses, is a lottery. This is partly so because
more varied qualities are necessary in a hound than in a horse.
The latter we are now speaking of thorough-bred horses, to
which in this consideration hounds can only be compared
fulfils the chief object of his being if he can gallop and is
sound ; but the hound must possess nose, stoutness, speed,
courage, and a number of valuable qualities which may be
briefly summed up under the head of intelligence. If a hound

1 We are indebted for this information to the courtesy of Mr. Archibald
Ruggles-Brise, lately master of the East Essex hounds, the establishment here
described. With the one single exception noted, nothing could be more ser-
viceable and convenient than these kennels and stables, and very cheap.

122 HUNTING.

be handsome so much the better, of course ; but the best
hound is the one that works best, not the handsomest. There
is something particularly pleasing to the eye in the sight of a
level, symmetrical pack. To breed a pack of hounds, perfect
alike in appearance and in work, is, however, the labour of a
lifetime. Nose and stoutness are the two things which the
breeder of hounds should first of all seek to obtain, and ex-
perience shows that no two attributes are more distinctly here-
ditary. The beginner, therefore, especially in a small kennel,
should disregard all ideas of pleasing his eyes and breed ex-
clusively from the best nosed and stoutest hounds of both sexes,
irrespective of size and appearance.

The generative powers of the dog are retained in their full
strength longer than those of the bitch. A promising dog may
begin his duties as a sire in his first season, he is usually at his
best in his third. The bitch cannot be hopefully trusted to pro-
duce a serviceable progeny after she is six years old. That the
parents should be in perfect health is before all things essential.
If the bitch suffers from any ailment during the period of her
pregnancy her produce is likely to be affected. The state of
the weather when the whelps are born and during the first three
or four months of their lives has an immense influence on their
future stoutness, usefulness, and soundness. Under the most
favourable conditions the litter will consist of seven or eight
nearly twice as many have been known, but this is a misfortune.
A young bitch will bring up about four puppies comfortably to
herself and with benefit to them. If she is three or four years old
she may bring up five, but much depends upon whether she is
a good milker and a good mother. How the breeder is to
make his choice which to leave with her and which to take is
a matter that must be left to his discretion, but if the puppies are
from specially good parents on both sides it is desirable to get a
sheep dog or spaniel wet-nurse to bring up three or four of the
puppies beyond those which the mother is capable of Suckling.

Masters usually have prejudices about colour, preferring
generally dark hounds to light. The mother's prejudices are

THE KENNEL.

123

not safe guides, as she may devote herself chiefly to the
weakest of her progeny. An idea prevails that light-coloured
hounds have weak constitutions, and some suppose them to be
worse tempered than their darker brethren ; but this is a base-
less theory, for some of the stoutest and best hounds ever seen
have been light-coloured. The points of a whelp can, however,
be but faintly discerned if they can be perceived at all, so that
on the whole colour must be the guide.

The mother should suckle her whelps for six or seven weeks
according as her milk lasts. When weaned their food should

Puppies.

be the best oatmeal (neither barley nor wheat should ever be
given to hounds), and dog biscuit, mixed in cow's or goat's
milk, with just enough soup horseflesh soup to make it
warm. This should be given them twice a day, and in addi-
tion, for the first few days after they cease to suckle, about half
a pound of parboiled horseflesh chopped up into mince. When
two months old this meat may be given them raw. It is
desirable that the puppies should be born in February. The

I2 4 HUNTING.

young things thrive in the early spring as they do at no other
time of year, and experience shows that puppies so born grow
into the best hounds.

When the mother is about to whelp, she is taken at Badmin-
ton to the bitch and puppy houses, of which drawings are
given. The kennel at the back of each little run closes with
a door divided into two parts, over the bottom half of which
the mother can easily pass to and from her puppies. Gates, as
will be seen in the elevation, shut in each run, so that the little
creatures cannot stray, and the roof comes right over so as to
afford shelter. The divisions between the half-dozen little
yards are movable, and thus the puppies can have a fair-sized
run if the divisions are taken away. The mother, it will be ob-
served, can be shut in if necessary, ventilation being provided
over every door. That a good bed and an abundant supply of
food must be given to the mother is too obvious to need
explanation.

About May, when three or four months old the period
must be judged by the growth and condition of the animals
puppies are ready to be sent to their walks, where they remain to
be tended at the discretion of their temporary masters till the
following spring. Those that find quarters at a dairy farm are
well placed, but during this year of their lives the puppies are
usually well cared for. Often, indeed, they return to their
kennels as fat as pigs going to market, and this is bad ; a few
are perhaps on the other hand thin and poor, owing to the
ignorance or carelessness of those with whom they have been
living, and such puppies are generally very shy and wild.

Their childhood is now over, and the serious business of
life begins. They must be brought by degrees to be as other
hounds are ; but as different puppies have been differently treated
during the past year at their various homes, some are much
longer than others before they accept the food and discipline of
the kennel. Puppies often take to kennel food at once, others
are some days, occasionally some weeks, before they eat with
relish. The food supplied to them is much the same as that

THE KENXEL.

125

I -:

S- <

126

HUNTING.

which they had when they were first weaned. Putting milk on
the top of the food in the trough will often induce those
who do not take kindly to their new table of dietary to lap
it up.

They are to be fed twice a day at first, once a day afterwards
when they display good appetite, the delicate feeders being
drawn in for a few mouthfuls a second time. It is very neces-

Bringing Hounds into Feeding Room.

sary to consider these delicate feeders, which are to be found
in all establishments. Even when they have begun to work they
will digest their food better, and consequently be better, if they
are fed twice a day. Coarse oatmeal some twelve months old
is the only proper grain for hounds.

One great reason for keeping the puppies temperate in the
matter of diet and for giving them due exercise on their

THE KENNEL. 127

return to the kennel, is that distemper, the curse of all
kennels, is likely soon to attack them. It is far better that they
should have it now than some months hence. In all probability
if they escape for the time being, the disease will take them
in the following February when they are in good work, and then
they have it, as a rule, much more severely. If they do not die
the master loses their work for the rest of the season, and they
are thrown back, so that it is more convenient to get it over.
The severity and even the nature of distemper varies so much
from year to year, that it is impossible to suggest any specific
cure. One year it attacks the lungs, and is then very fatal,
particularly if the yellows (jaundice) is a symptom. Another
year it goes to the head, when blindness, violent bleedings
at the nose, discharge of matter, and other troubles ensue.
Often the hound looks as if he were dead, being utterly
unable to stand. Distemper occasionally affects the limbs
with fearful twitchings, from which in some cases the hounds
never recover, that is to say, these symptoms never wholly dis-
appear. Hounds thus affected have seemed so well in other
respects that a few years ago in the Badminton kennels it was
determined to see whether they would stand a day's work, and
it was found that some of those which never lost this result of
the disease could run up with the best and stand the longest and
hardest days. Distemper appears to be especially fatal to the
finest, strongest, and best young hounds. Sucking puppies if
attacked are hardly ever known to survive. The master is
powerless to avert the disease. Many people vaccinate their
hounds as a preventative, but though few sane men doubt the
efficacy of vaccination as a safeguard against small-pox, it can
have no effect against distemper in a hound, a disease of a
totally different character. Mr. F. Gillard, huntsman to the
Duke of Rutland at Belvoir, has compounded a medicine which
is perhaps as good as any that can be used, but it will be found
much more efficacious in some seasons than in others on account
of the various methods in which hounds are affected in different
years. Much also depends on the weather, a long spell of

123

HUNTING.

bitter east wind in March or April is to be dreaded by the
master whose hounds are down with distemper.

Life in the kennels may be best described by a brief account
of a day's proceedings during the hunting season. Desirable as
it is to exercise the puppies when they come in, it is almost
impossible when the hunting is going on, except perhaps in a
two-days-a-week country ; but if the kennel staff is strong
enough, one man can lead out for an hour or more three

Hounds feeding.

couples at the time, with three cords or straps, one to each
couple.

The hounds' day passes as follows :

As soon as it is light, in winter and summer, the kennel
huntsman opens the kennel doors and takes his charges
out for a walk for a quarter of an hour or so, and in their
absence the room is cleaned and fresh bedding supplied. The
troughs have meantime been filled; and if it is the hunting
season, those hounds which are not going out are fed as soon
as possible. This will be about seven o'clock in winter. Having

THE KENNEL.

129

eaten their daily meal, they are again turned out, and then left
to themselves till about ten o'clock, when they have another run-,
and again about four, at which time a few delicate feeders, if
there be any in the pack, as is almost invariably the case, are
allowed a little more food. The pack which is going to hunt
is of course not fed till it comes home. Then after running
through the bath three or four times, as described, they are
called to the troughs. The huntsman will of course look care-

Hounds after having been fed.

fully to note any signs of lameness or injury. Thorns in the
hounds' legs and feet are naturally frequent, scratches and tears
are also common, and these are treated, when the thorns have
been extricated, with a little tincture of myrrh, which may also
usefully be applied to hot bruised feet.

In the summer-time hounds should be taken out four times
a day, and permitted to play and lie about under the trees.
They will scratch into the ground for pig nuts, and eat not only
grass but earth. The huntsman should put on a pair of

K

130

HUNTING.

rough horsehair gloves, with which to rub their backs as they
go near him, a proceeding which is obviously pleasant to the
hounds. In summer they will need a little water, which they
do not want in winter, except indeed when they are hot after
hunting, and then they must not have it ; the moisture of
their food suffices.

Exercising Hounds on the Road.

As the hunting season approaches hounds, like horses, must
be conditioned. The huntsman and whips now mount and
trot the packs about, six or eight miles at first, and longer
distances as they become more fit to go. A good deal of the
work should be done on the roads, for the purpose of hardening
the hounds' feet

THE KENNEL. 131

Of late years one or two masters have abandoned the
custom of rounding the puppies' ears. Most of the operations
which are performed on animals are equally stupid and cruel.
There was a time when even a hunter's ears were cropped,
thus giving the flies and gnats special facilities for tormenting
him. But rounding puppies is desirable, for the reason that
their long drooping ears would be continually torn and wounded
by thorns and briars in the thick undergrowth, into which the
foxhound has to force his way, as well as in the hedges,
through which he must also scramble. Many huntsmen are of
^pinion that rounding has a good effect in certain cases of
distemper, though Beckford lays it down that ' dogs must not
be rounded all the time they have the distemper upon them ;
the loss of blood would weaken them too much.'

At Badminton the young hounds are taken out in their
couples among the deer in the park, and soon learn to take no
notice of them. Obedience is before all things necessary in
the kennel, and it is not only possible, but in the highest
degree desirable, to secure this by the voice. The whip
should be rather a symbol of authority than a weapon of
punishment.

Of the perfect hound it is not easy to better Somerville's
description :

See there, with countenance blythe,
And with a courtly grin, the fawning hound
Salutes them cow'ring ; his wide op'ning nose
Upwards he curls, and his large sloe-black eyes
Melt in soft blandishments and humble joy :
His glossy skin, or yellow pied, or blue,
In lights or shades, by Nature's pencil drawn,
Reflects the various tints : his ears and legs
Fleckt here and there in gay enamel'd pride,
Rival the speckled pard ; his rush-grown tail
O'er his broad back, bends in an ample arch,
On shoulders clean upright and firm he stands :
His round cat feet, straight hams, and widespread thighs
And his low drooping chest, confess his speed,
His strength, his wind, or on the steepy hill

K 2

1 32 HUNTING,

Or far extended plain ; on every part
So well proportioned, that the nicer skill
Of Phidias himself can't blame thy choice.
Of such compose thy pack.

The poet's demand, that he shall stand ' upright and firm '
is wise. He must be straight on his legs ; ' the \videspread
thighs ' imply a powerful back and loins, that, in fact, the hound

A good hound (from a picture in the possession of His Grace
the Duke of Beaufort, K.G.)

is 'good to follow.' The shoulders, besides being ' clean/ must
be well sloped. A flat-sided hound is sure to be a bad-winded

THE KENNEL.

133

one. Speed and strength alike call for great length from hip.
to hock, and as little as possible from hock to foot. As for the
size of the hound's head, that is the best size which is oftenest
well to the fore on the line of the fox.

The animal chosen as an example of what a hound should
be is the Badminton Potentate, a dog which, born in 1840,
did notable service in the hunting field for eleven seasons, and
has transmitted his own sterling qualities to successive gene-
rations. He is one which the man in search of a hound

A bad hound.

will do well to carry in his eye. He died in 1851. As a
contrast to him the picture of a bad hound is given, his de-
fects being purposely emphasised in order that they may at
once strike the observer. Such a nightmare of a hound is
not to be discovered in any hunting field, but by a course of
injudicious breeding he might conceivably be produced. From
head to stern he is all that a hound should not be. His shape-
less head is joined by a thick neck to a shockingly clumsy pair
of shoulders, which have no liberty of action about them. His

134 HUNTING.

legs are weak and crooked ; he has the reverse of those ' round
cat feet ' which Somerville properly desires. He is flat-sided
and slack in the loins ; his stern is badly put on in the wrong
place, and there is a total lack of muscle in his lean and long-
drawn thighs.

The expenses of a pack of hounds naturally depend upon
the number of days per week that the master hunts, and the
number of hounds that it is therefore necessary to keep. In
the Badminton kennels there are, as a rule, about 75 couples,
and this provides i8j or 20 couples five days a week. For a
pack which hunts four days a week, 52 couples will suffice. The
t\vo-days-a-week man will be well found with 28 couples, or, if
he does not breed, 23 couples will be enough.

The annual consumption of 75 couples includes about 40
tons of oatmeal, 3 tons of dog biscuit, and 150 horses. Great
care should be taken in selecting the meal. It should be
bought before the new oats are harvested. Once placed in
the meal room, it must not be moved or it will ferment. If it
be possible to obtain damaged navy biscuits nothing is better.
Some makers are grossly careless, and their manufacture has a
deleterious effect on the hounds. A two-days -a- week pack will
consume about 13 tons of oatmeal, i ton of dog biscuits, and
50 horses. Prices vary. Oatmeal ranges from io/. to i8/.
per ton ; biscuit is about ~i$l. per ton, and horses may gene-
rally be had from i/. to 55. and less. They are difficult to
get about harvest time, and the supply seems scanty near the
large towns when sausages are in season !

The servants immediately connected with the kennels
include the kennel huntsman, a feeder, who unites the office
of butcher and cook, and a couple of lads. Of the duties of
hunt servants, however, we shall proceed to speak in the next
chapter.

135

CHAPTER V.

HUNT SERVANTS.

THE DUTIES OF A HUNTSMAN IN THE FIELD.

THIS is a subject most difficult to treat on paper. The natural
answer that would be given to an inquirer, by anyone of long
experience in the hunting field, would be, ' If you would learn
the business of a huntsman go and hunt with one of good
repute, and exercise all your intelligence and common sense in
explaining to yourself the why and the wherefore of the various
things you observe him do.'

Our Library being intended for the use of beginners in
various sports and pastimes, we must, however imperfectly, try

136 HUNTING.

to give to such a one, if he seeks it, sufficient information to
enable him to commence his career as a huntsman, and leave it
to his natural aptitude to perfect him after experience in the
profession.

A resident in our colonies or in a foreign country, where
no hounds are kept, would be naturally dependent on books
for instruction, and to him, therefore, are these lines specially
addressed. An aspirant to fame as huntsman resident in
the United Kingdom or Ireland may be recommended to
follow the advice already suggested.

The huntsman having made himself well acquainted with
his hounds, and they having got to know him, sallies forth 1 from
his kennel, his object being to find a fox. Should he be draw-
ing an open country, he should draw directly up the wind or
with a good cheek wind. The pace at which he draws should
be regulated by the thickness of the stuff through which hounds
have to go, whether it is gorse, heather, bracken, fern, or the
rushy materials and myrtle that grow on bogs. And here let
me remark that there is no place in an open country where
a fox is so likely to be found as a bog. Water rats, moor hens,
ducks, and mice, all favourite articles of food, are there in
abundance ; there are generally high dry tussocks of strong
rough grass, and on these he makes a warm dry bed. Often a
fox is found a hundred to a hundred and fifty yards away from
the bog, he having made his bed in a thick patch of short gorse
within easy reach of his larder. One of the prettiest sights to
a lover of hunting is to note this up-wind or cheek-wind draw.
You will observe some hounds quietly pass on, drawing and
sniffing at the bushes by which a fox has passed during the
night, and you will suddenly see one hound to whom a whiff
has come put his nose up into the air, sniff, and going first
right then left, finally make his mind up whence comes this
scent. He will follow it patiently as it gets stronger and
stronger, leave the bog and go a hundred or a hundred and
fifty yards to a thick bed of gorse or bramble. He will go
all round it, losing the scent when he gets the up-wind side

HUNT SERVANTS. 137

of the thicket. Returning down wind he catches it again, and
after sniffing and poking about some little time will suddenly
throw his tongue loudly and dash into the break ; and out will
go the fox. I quote this that the aspiring huntsman may
understand the necessity of giving his hounds time when draw-
ing. I have several times in my life seen this occur just as I
have described it.

In an open country to draw down wind means to get a bad
start with your fox, for even those that have never been hunted
will be very apt to move and be off, and one that knows what
hounds are is sure to take the hint very quickly. Should the
country be an inclosed one and the coverts large, the same rule
as to drawing up wind applies. Here the huntsman should be
very particular about regulating the pace of his horse by the
pace at which the hounds can travel whilst drawing for their
fox. Should the covert be hollow a good brisk trot is necessary,
but if it is a real fine thick covert the huntsman cannot go too
slowly. It is an advantage, and makes hounds draw better, if
some of them are ahead of the huntsman. I have often known
a huntsman put hounds in and trot away, speaking to them all
the time. After a bit, as the huntsman's voice gets fainter and
fainter the hounds stop, listen, and instead of going on drawing
come out into the ride and trot up it after the huntsman ; and
in this way often miss a fox. In a woodland a huntsman
should be rather noisy than quiet, make good use of his voice,
and occasionally blow a single note on his horn. It is a judi-
cious course, and makes hounds much livelier, if the huntsman
only uses a single note when no fox is on foot, but ' doubles
his horn ' when a fox is found ; the difference in the way
hounds move to it is extraordinary. The horn may be advan-
tageously used in case of hounds running riot (hunting a hare
or any wrong game), or taking the scent heelways of a fox.
A screech or, as perhaps it may be called, discord blown on
the horn will stop them more quickly than the cry of 'ware
heel ! ' The ear of a hound or dog is very sensitive, and he
dislikes the discord. The screech may also be used in covert

138 HUNTING.

by the huntsman if he comes upon hounds eating carrion, or
finds a litter of cubs in a hollow tree or stool, and wants his
whipper-in to assist him and drive the hounds away. It should
be understood that when he is sitting still and blowing discords,
the whipper-in or some of the field should go to him.

In large woodlands the huntsman should draw everything,
and closely, as otherwise he may leave a fox in some unlikely
corner. When the coverts are small they should be drawn
down wind, to avoid the chance of chopping a lox. A few
cracks of a hunting whip or a gentle touch or two on the horn
should put a fox on his legs, and the down-wind side being
kept clear of horse and footmen he should have a chance of
going away. One of the most annoying things in hunting is
the chopping of foxes. If small coverts are near together and
they have to be drawn down wind, some quick-eyed servant of
the hunt, or some keen and observant sportsman who can be
trusted, should be sent on down wind. He must conceal him-
self so as not to head the fox, and yet be able to command
a good view of the country. In the event of his seeing a fox away
he should gallop back and hold his cap or hat up or otherwise
attract the huntsman's attention. It is no use sitting and
halloaing down wind with the result of making the fox hurry
himself whilst the huntsman and field do not hear the halloa.

Now as to the huntsman's duties when the fox is afoot.
Having made sufficient noise with voice and horn to get the
hounds together and keep them together whilst in the woods,
and also, I often think, to frighten the fox into seeking the open
country, the huntsman should then subside and be as quiet as
possible. As to telling a man what he should do when hounds
come to a check after running hard say, twenty minutes it is
impossible ; but the first thing to do, if happily no horsemen
were near them when they checked, is to leave them alone and
let the hounds swing and cast forward, back and round ; then
the huntsman must exercise his keenest sense of observation
and his natural intelligence. Of course, if there is a plough
team or an old woman sitting on a stile right in front, the pro-

HUNT SERVANTS. 139

babilities are that the fox has been turned, and after the hounds
have tried their best and failed to recover the scent, the
huntsman must try his hand, but he must always allow the
hounds to have a good try first In a strange country, and
where there is nothing to indicate whether the fox has most
likely turned right or left or straight back, a short cast up the
wind and a longer one down the wind is not a bad mode of
solving the difficulty.

There is one check that beats hounds and the best of
huntsmen, and that is when the fox not having been turned
hounds check on his line. That very mysterious and little
understood thing, scent, brings this about at times. It seems
to float up in the air above the hounds' heads, and when the
huntsman returns, after ten minutes' vain endeavour to hit of?
his fox, away go the hounds straight on from the very place at
which they checked. Another thing that constantly baffles a
huntsman is when, the fox being ten minutes before the hounds,
the object that frightened and turned him has passed out of
.sight before the arrival of hounds and huntsmen. The great
thing for a huntsman to remember is that the hounds are more
likely to recover the scent than the huntsman if they only have
sufficient time given them, and the longer in reason he lets
them alone the better ; but when once he thinks they have had
sufficient time the sooner he makes his cast the better. Old
Goosey, the late Duke of Rutland's celebrated huntsman, used
to say, ' I take leave to say that a fox is a toddling animal, and
never stops, and if you are not quick after him you will very
soon lose him.' On open downs, where there is always a great
draught, hounds, are constantly blown off the line and want
their heads just turning up the wind, and then away they go
again.

A huntsman should keep as near his hounds as he can
without inconveniencing them, and never be straight behind
them, otherwise he will drive them when they wish to turn and
bring them to check. Whilst hounds are running the huntsman's
eyes should always be well forward. If he has good quick eyes

140 HUNTING.

he will often see the fox, and will at other times see some
object that has turned his fox from the point he is running to.
A sheep or cur dog who has coursed him perhaps. Sometimes
a shepherd or man with a dog, more truthful than his neigh-
bours, will say, ' I'm sorry my dog has run your fox up to such a
point,' but as a rule even when you have seen the dog coursing
the fox, the dog's master will swear he did not run him. Ex-
perience has taught me never to ask the man, but to ask the
dog. If you find him with his mouth shut, you may be satisfied
he has not run him ; if the dog's tongue is out and he is panting,
you will know he has run the fox, and then you can ask the
master how far the dog did run.

It is a very extraordinary but well-known fact that in nine
cases out of ten if a fox is coursed by a dog during a run all
scent ceases afterwards, even when you get your hounds to the
line of the fox beyond where the dog has been. Scent is one
of the things ' no fellow can understand,' and this is one of
the most remarkable phenomena relating to it. Except practice
and experience and what a huntsman will learn from it, I know
nothing more that I can say to assist a beginner in his work.
One remark I may make, and that is, that though to get to
know the hounds and make them know their huntsman it is as
well to feed them at first, after you have killed one fox with
them it is unnecessary, as they will always leave the man who
feeds for the man who hunts them. Also I strongly advise
hounds being allowed to eat their fox when they catch him ;
they should not be knocked about and beaten when the fox
is taken away to be cut up by the whipper-in.

Should any beginner try to get a hint from these pages, I
shall be pleased if these few remarks (which for convenience,
having so much personal observation to make, I am putting in
the first person singular) prove of any assistance to him.

HUNT SERVANTS.

.141

THE DUTIES OF A WHIPrER-IN.

Various and diverse are the ideas of Masters of Hounds and
Huntsmen as to these duties. The system mostly in vogue now I
abominate and detest, for which I will presently give my reasons.
That system is that when there are two whippers-in, on which-
ever side of the covert each may happen to be, when the fox
and hounds go away the first whipper-in is to make the best of
his way to hounds whilst the second is to hang about and halloa
and bring on any left behind. If he is in time to ' tell ' them and
sees all are there, of course he comes on, but if he either finds
that a hound or a ccuple or more are short, or if he has no
chance of ' telling ' them, he must hang about in case they should
be left behind. I was brought up under old Bill Long, a man
of singular intelligence, one who reasoned and turned over
carefully in his mind all things connected with hunting. He

142 HUNTING.

used to say to me, ' Hounds are like children, they do not like to
be left behind, and if they know you will not wait for them they
bustle to ,et after you ; but if they know you will wait, they
don't hurry themselves, but they will stop just inside the fence
peeping at the huntsman and pack waiting, and will not come
out till they see them moving off (this, of course, when there is
no fox on foot) ; or if hounds are away with a fox will try and
do a bit of hunting for themselves, in some independent way ;
and why ? because they know that some one will come back and
fetch them.' Bill Long was nineteen years a whipper-in and
twenty-seven years a huntsman, and first class in both capacities.
Some years later Tom Clark (who began in Devonshire and
Hampshire, whipping-in to Captain Howarth who hunted his
own hounds, and then was in the Shires and eventually hunted
the Old Berkshire, when kept by the late James Morrell) came
to me as huntsman, beginning the cub hunting in the season
1857-1858. He was excellent in the kennel, conditioning the
hounds well, and giving them real good long summer horse
exercise, and he could kill a fox in the open or in the wood-
lands when once found as well as any huntsman I ever saw. so
that it was a pleasure to hunt with him. He was wonderfully
cheery and fond of a gallop. I learnt many wrinkles from
him, enjoyed many a good day's sport, and saw him kill many
a good fox that would have beaten a less expert huntsman
than 'Sagacious Thomas.' I think he spoilt my hounds by
his anxiety to get away for a gallop. He would stop them
off the fox they were running, and lay them on to another
that had gone away, so that they lost that excellent quality
of not changing from one fox to another, which in Bill Long's
day they had. After a long run if they got to a covert with
fresh foxes in it they would not change, but stick to and kill
their own fox. Clark's system of galloping lost them that, and
they have never recovered it. He was, however, inferior in
intellect to, and less observant than, Bill Long, would often
draw over a fox, was proverbially a bad finder of foxes, and his
system with the whippers-in was bad. In the first place, it was as

HUNT SERVANTS. 143

regards going away that which I have above written as the
prevailing system now. Further, when hounds had run five
or six miles, if he found a hound away he would send his
second whipper-in back where do you think to ? Why, to the
covert the fox had come from. Now, any sportsman of average
intelligence who thinks of this, will, I dare say, come to the
conclusion that an hour after hounds have left a covert any
hounds left, if they were hunting a fox, will have rattled him out
of covert and no longer be there, or if they were not hunting
will have set off on the line of the pack, or trotted off home ;
the last place such hounds are to be found in is the covert you
have quitted. To this, however, Clark used to send. I positively
forbad the practice, but it was done when I was not out, and
sometimes when I was ; but if I saw the whip going I always
stopped him. I remember on one occasion we had run from
Great Wood through a very large strong covert of the V.W.H.
called Webb's Wood. The ground being deep, and the pace very
severe, the hounds beat us, so it was impossible ' to tell them '
away from Webb's Wood through which the fox had gone very
straight, and we did not discover till we had killed the fox, some
five miles beyond, that three couple of hounds were away. As
we were returning into our country to find another fox I saw the
second whipper-in turn away. ' Where are you going ? ' I asked.
' To Webb's Wood.' ' Certainly not,' I said ; ' come on with the
hounds.' Clark was very cross, till I told him that I should con-
tract with him to find the second whipper-in's horses and then
perhaps he would be less fond of sending them miles round to
flounder through the rides of one of the deepest, stickiest clay
woods in England. I said, ' Keep touching your horn as you go.'
After we had got back into our country and within a mile of the
covert we were going to, some three or four miles from Webb's
Wood, as we were trotting down the towing path of the canal,
which was our shortest route, there on the path were the
three couple of absent hounds. How they got there, why
they were all together, whether they had hunted their fox to
near there, lost him, or run him to ground, or whether they

144 HUNTING.

were on their way home and heard the horn and came, I know
not, and never was able to make out from the country people ;
but there they were.

Now Bill Long's system I hold to be correct. Whichever
whipper-in happened to be on the side the hounds broke
away had to go with the hounds, and the other one coming
round or through the covert, making use of his voice and
holloaing ' Forward,' &c., was to make the best of his way
after them, being sure to turn round with his face to the covert
before setting off, and holloaing ' Away,' at the top of his voice,
so as to insure any straggling hound hearing him ; and then
he used to come on. Of course, in the event of hounds
dividing, it would be the duty of whichever whipper-in happens
to be nearest the smaller lot to do his best to stop them, and
make them join the body of the pack. I am confident that,
besides the injury to horseflesh caused by sending back for
hounds, it tends more to make hounds helpless and slack than
anything else in the world. All hounds dislike being left
behind, and all hounds when let alone will find their way home.
Often have I seen Tom Clark sitting under a covert blowing his
horn. ' What are you doing there ? ' ' Two couple of hounds
away.' ' Well, if you sit there for a week they won't come.
Shog on ! ' and before he had gone three fields I have seen
them coming at a good pace.

Whilst hounds are drawing a whipper-in cannot be too
quiet. If hounds riot and he can get to them to stop them,
let him do so without making a noise ; if he cannot, then he
must rate them ; but the more quietly the better. If they take
a scent heel- ways, the quieter and lower he says ' Ware heel ! '
the better. If he is in a big covert watching a straight ride
let him never turn his head or take his eye off the ride, for
at that instant a fox will surely cross ; and most particularly
if he sees him cross, even if he holloas immediately, let him
not take his eye off the ride for a minute or two, as the re-
sult of holloaing immediately a fox has crossed a ride often is
to make him pop back again over the ride, and if he does that

HUNT SERVANTS. 145

without being seen it is more than probable he will be lost.
Certainly it will bring hounds to a long check, and the
holloa will have done more harm than good. Whippers-in
when sent on down wind, or to the far end of a covert, are very
fond of sitting at the exact point of the angle of a covert. Now
this is a great mistake, for if a fox does not actually break there,
I believe he generally will go there before breaking to look if
he can, if there is anyone to observe him, and most certainly to
listen to what is going on. Some few foxes are bold and do
not care who sees them, but these are rare, and I fancy are
strangers out visiting, who, hearing a noise, and, if they have
been previously hunted, recognising the voice and the horn ot
the huntsman, think it time to be off home.

Foxes know the huntsman's voice as well as hounds do
after they have heard it a few times, and the generality of foxes
are shy at breaking covert, and hate to be seen. One -small
child will keep a fox from going, while a regiment of cavalry
can't prevent his going back again. I say, therefore, let the
whipper-in hide himself as well as he may, where he can com-
mand both sides of the angle if possible ; if not on the most
likely side, but never at the angle. If anyone follows him, let
there be no conversation. If two or three gentlemen come
down, let him (the whipper-in) beg them either to go away or
not to talk or smoke. If he is fortunate enough to have hit
upon the right spot and to see the fox break away, let him not
move or speak till the fox has got through at least two, and
much better, three fences ; and if he even then gives him an-
other field no harm is done. In the first place, the fox will not
turn back into covert ; in the second he will be more likely to
go straight, which all sportsmen know is better for hounds and
pleasanter for those who ride to them. A fox with a good five
minutes' start of hounds is much more likely to give a good fine
straight run of from six to ten mile points than one on whose
very back hounds get away.

Just one word on the voice, and its use. To a huntsman a
fine voice is of the greatest benefit ; it exercises a marvellous

L

146 HUNTING.

influence over his hounds, and is a pleasure to all who hunt
with him. Old Carter, who died in the autumn of 1884, having
survived his ninetieth birthday, had a lovely voice. Even when
he was over seventy years of age it was a treat to hear him draw
a big woodland. William Long also had a most musical voice.
To a whipper-in such a voice is a misfortune, and he should
nourish and cherish it till such time as he becomes a huntsman
and carries a horn. I fully agree with the late Earl Fitzhardinge,
who was one of the best sportsmen that ever lived, whose know-
ledge of hunting and all appertaining thereto was inferior to no
man's. He used to say, ' I hate a whipper-in with a fine loud
voice. If anything goes wrong, if hounds riot or get hold of
carrion, he is satisfied to sit a mile off and rate them.' That
may do very well once, and hounds may fear the consequence
of not avoiding whatever their misdeed is ; but when they
find nobody comes, the next time they will take no notice of it.
The whipper-in when he finds wrong-doing should say nothing
but get quickly to the hounds ; when he is right on top of
them, a quick rate with the voice and a smack of the whip will
probably put matters to rights ; should it not, then a smart
stroke with a not too heavy whip may be necessary. The
last thing it strikes me to remark about the voice is that
in coming away from a covert drawn blank the huntsman's
voice and horn should be sufficient to bring hounds away ;
the whipper-in's voice should not be heard. I hear con-
stantly whippers-in making as much noise as though six foxes
had gone away. This is wrong, and makes hounds slack and
slow in coming when a fox has gone. You cannot make more
than a certain noise, and if you make all you can when no fox
is gone how are hounds to know the difference of being simply
drawn out of a blank covert or being wanted to get quickly
away after a fox? This is particularly objectionable when
drawing a succession of small coverts, which you are probably
doing down wind, and it moves a fox that is a mile or even two
miles off. I have known several whippers-in good men in
their way I should have liked to take out with muzzles on.

HUNT SERVANTS. 147

I ought to say a word on the subject of horses as regards
whippers-in. I have often in my life heard a M.F.H. say
of a brute that can neither jump nor gallop, 'Oh, he will
do to carry a whipper-in.' Now this is a very great mis-
take. Leave your whipper-in at home sooner than mount him
badly. To be of any use he should be able to get to hounds
and to stop hounds if wanted. If you are too stingy or too
badly off to buy good horses for him, buy none, and begin your
economy at the right place. It is just as expensive to feed, and
keep helpers to attend to, a bad horse as a good one, and your
whipper-in badly mounted is useless. I would impress on
whippers-in that horses are not steam engines that will go as
long as you choose to keep the steam on, and that even if they
were they have no tender with water and coal to feed them with.
I know some who never take care of their horses, always tire
them, gallop in the deepest and worst, instead of the firmest and
best, ground, and ride them over the biggest place instead of the
easiest in the fence, when there is no necessity for it. To these
men I would say, ' Nurse your horse ; the run may be severe, the
day may be long, and to get to the end of either you must ride
with care and judgment.' A good horse deserves to be well
treated, and a whipper-in who ill-uses and knocks his horses
about deserves the fate with which I always threatened Dick
Christian, who was a butcher on a horse namely, that I would
buy blind fly horses in Bath or Cheltenham and give him
nothing else to ride.

A huntsman, whether he be a gentleman or a professional,
should impress on his whippers-in certain things that they
should or should not do. This is better done by quietly talking
to them in the kennels or elsewhere than by blowing them up
or swearing at them in the hunting field, though it is at times
necessary to speak out there. I have observed that nine out of
ten interfere with hounds when they ought not to do so. For
instance : having got a long way behind his fox, and the hounds
being at check, the huntsman is making his cast. Some one,
or perhaps even two or three, couple of hounds, with finer

L 2

148 HUNTING.

noses than the others, stop and try to puzzle out the scent. The
whipper-in should not then interfere with them. He should leave
them, and putting the others on to the huntsman, watch them.
If he finds they are feathering on the line, he should encourage
them and call the huntsman's attention to them. As a rule
directly a whipper-in sees hounds doing this he rides at, rates,
or hits them, any way drives them on. It never seems to
strike a whipper-in that hounds come out to use their noses,
and to hunt a fox ! In countries where foxes lie out much in
hedgerows or in trees, in trotting from one covert to another
you may move a fox without anyone seeing him. Should
you cross his line, directly hounds put their noses down and
begin to speak to it, or to quicken their pace, without even
looking or considering whether it is a hound given to rioting
or a staunch foxhound that will hunt nothing else, bang goes the
whipper-in at them, with voice and whip to stop them. My ex-
perience is that with very few exceptions nine days out often that
a whipper-in goes out hunting he does more harm than good.

I persistently call these men 'whippers-in,' agreeing with
the late Earl Fitzhardinge that it is the proper name for that
species of kennel servant, that a whip is a thing you carry in
your hand, and not a man on horseback.

I dare say I have omitted many things I ought to have
noticed, but at the present time the only other hint I should give
is that whips in the kennel cannot be too short or too light, as
many hounds have been seriously injured across the back by
the use of the usual heavy whips served out.

THE DUTIES OF A KENNEL HUNTSMAN.
In the ordinary case of a professional huntsman being en-
gaged, he must have under him either a man of experience
whom he can trust to feed the hounds properly when he is
away from home (though generally that can be done before
he starts for his day's duty), and to look after lame and sick
hounds, or he must have an intelligent young man who will
obey orders and carry out the instructions given to him. This

HUNT SERVANTS.

149

functionary would be called the kennel feeder, and it would
be his duty amongst other things to walk out all the hounds
left at home three or four times a day for fifteen or twenty
minutes each time. In the case of a gentleman hunting his
own hounds, or the subscription pack of which he is master,
it is necessary to have a kennel huntsman. There are three

sorts : one who is old and does not ride, except to exercise the
hounds in summer, and whose sole occupation is to feed and
look after them and doctor them during the hunting season ;
another, a man capable of hunting them should illness or
business oblige the master to absent himself from the field.
There are great advantages in this second sort, because it is
not fair to ask a whipper-in to hunt hounds, nor to ask hounds

ISO HUNTING.

to recognise the whipper-in in his new capacity. It stands to
reason that the man who has been for weeks or months driving
hounds from him will not find them come to him very freely when
he wants them to do so. Then the kennel huntsman comes in.
It is a great advantage to a man who has to feed hounds to
see them in the field, and he should always have two or three
horses at his disposal, to be able to hunt at times, twice or
thrice a week say. He then sees how his conditioning answers,
and whether some want rather more, others rather less, food.
The third sort is, I think, objectionable. It is the kennel hunts-
man to whom the hounds look for protection in the kennel, who
whips-in to his master, and is obliged to drive and rate, and
perhaps strike a hound in the field. A good man as kennel
huntsman is a very valuable addition to a kennel establishment.
If he has studied veterinary books a little and knows the proper-
ties and effects of different medicines, it is a great advantage.
Kennel servants are often terribly ignorant on this point, and
might as well give known poisons as the medicines they ad-
minister in certain circumstances.

I am very fond of listening to hounds singing in kennel.
It is delightful to hear as it rises and falls, and seems as if each
hound had studied his notes ; it is also a beautiful sight to see
them sitting up with heads in air enjoying their chorus. At
Badminton, ever since I can recollect it has been the practice
not to interfere with them and to let them have their song out.
Charles Hamblin has a theory that they are apt to fight ;
but that is all nonsense ; they are much more apt to fight if
they are stopped. I never knew a case of their fighting after
singing. They seem satisfied and quiet. They sing much
more in the summer time and when they are fresh than during
the hunting season ; still they will do it at all times, but more
or less according to how fresh they are, and with regard to the
state of the weather. Fine weather induces them to sing. I
am sure it is much better for them to enjoy their music. To
my mind a huntsman will do well to allow this without any
interference, and to avoid a much more likely source of fights,

HUNT SERVANTS. 151

and that is keeping terriers, by day and by night, in the hounds'
lodging houses. Those are the little fellows that get into mischief
and first begin a row and a fight ; they are better in separate
lodging houses.

THE DUTIES OF AN EARTH-STOPPER.

One of the most vexatious and constantly recurring annoy-
ances that befall those who pursue the fox is his getting to
ground. To begin at the beginning, we will say that the earth-
stopper's duty is, after the fox has gone out on his nightly prowl,
and before he comes home to his rest in the morning, to stop
out all the main earths, and such drains as he knows the foxes
use at night. The hour must depend on the setting and rising
of the sun at the various periods of the hunting season. Here
let us pause to say that the term ' stopping out ' means doing it
during the night, and the term 'putting to' means stopping
the earths or drains later in the morning, just in sufficient time
to prevent the fox getting to ground after he is found. That
part of the country in which the hounds are likely to draw for
a fox should be ' stopped out,' and that part to which they are
likely to run should be ' put to.' It is a good plan and saves
time to have packs of post cards with the names and addresses
of the stoppers printed on the back. You have then only to write
'Stop out Tuesday night,' or ' Put to Wednesday,' and date and
post it. In most countries, if a man's stop is not too large to
enable him to do so, it is advisable for him to visit the main or
largest earths again in the morning, to see that no one has
pulled out the stones or faggots ; in those in which there are
badgers this is absolutely necessary. A small terrier dog is a
very useful adjunct to an earth-stopper. In the first place, if
he wants to stop a drain permanently it is necessary, on the
commonest principles of humanity, to run a dog through so as
not to starve to death some wretched fox, rabbit, or cat that
may happen to be in it. This saves a great deal of trouble,
and the omission of it is a fruitful source of running to
ground, for either some mischievous fellow moves the

152

HUNTING.

stones or the water washes a way through, or a rabbit, a
fox, or a badger has scratched a way in, and a good run
may be spoilt by the fox going to ground there. If the
drain is grated it should be constantly looked at. The
better way is to set the grating in masonry about a yard in
to avoid its being stolen, but that makes it more difficult to
see if the water has scowered sufficiently under it to make
room for a fox after a little drawing by a rabbit. In the

spring of the year it is better not to 'stop out,' so as to
let vixens get to ground. When there are cubs about, the
' putting to ' should not be too late, say about 8 A.M., for
vixens when their cubs get strong go in and suckle the little
ones, but often come out again and take up a position near,
whence they can watch the earth, because the cubs scratch and
worry the mother ; and if the earth is ' put to ' too late the
vixen gets stopped out instead of being stopped in. Killing

HUNT SERVANTS. 153

a heavy vixen is annoying, but killing one that has laid up
cubs is still more so. If you do not find them the poor things
are starved to death ; if you find them and get a cat to bring
them up, you do not often raise them. If the cubs are three or
four months old, the dog fox will sometimes provide them with
food and bring them up. A great deal of the success and sport
of a season's hunting depends on efficient and careful earth-
stoppers. In spite of the greatest pains and trouble a M.F.H.
will find himself constantly running to ground in the same
earth or drain. If he does get a really good man in whose
stop he rarely or never gets to ground, he should treasure and
encourage him in every way.

COMPENSATION FOR DAMAGES DONE BY HORSEMEN
AND BY FOXES.

This is a most difficult subject to treat of. As a rule, during
the hunting season, horsemen do but little damage beyond
making gaps in the fences, and occasionally hurting a field of
vetches or young clover seeds or winter beans. The bulk of
farmers are so sporting and so good-natured that they do not
mind. You may come across one every now and then who
says, ' I won't have my bounds broken,' or ' You sha'n't ride
over my wheat.' But that is rare, and practically very trifling
damage is done. Sometimes in a wet spring, after grass has
been bush-harrowed, it is otherwise. Wheat is a very hardy
plant, and it takes a great deal to hurt it. I have seen fields
three times in my life that I thought utterly ruined by horses'
hoofs, and I arranged with the occupiers of the land to send,
before harvest, a good agriculturist to look over and report on
their state, with a view to compensation ; and on each occasion
I received a letter saying it was quite unnecessary, that there
had never been a better crop on those particular lands. But
all the same, the feelings of the farmer must be taken into con-
sideration, and he should be treated with gentleness and civi-
lity at all times, and compensated at the proper time if neces-

154 HUNTING.

sary ; though it will generally be found that not much damage
has been done. A hunting fanner of my acquaintance once told
me he never went over any part of his farm across which the
hounds had run for at least ten days after their visit, and that
then, beyond gaps in his fences, he found hardly any marks.
Every man has a right to object to his land being ridden over,
and when be does so, must be treated as a man who is within
his rights. To those who do not hunt themselves, and yet
welcome the hounds, all hunting men are deeply indebted ;
they are indeed generous and unselfish specimens of humanity.
To those who hunt we are also indebted, but as they partici
pate in the sport, and ride over other people's lands, it is in a
less degree. I remember a tenant of Lady Holland's at Foxley,
in North Wilts, a gentleman of the name of Baker, once open-
ing the gate of one of his own fields forty acres of wheat
in the month of February, when we were going to draw his
gorse covert, which he had asked us to make on his farm, and say-
ing, ' This is the best way ! ' There were three hundred horsemen
at least, and I remonstrated and suggested going a field farther
on ' Bless you, it will do it good ! ' he said ; and rode first into it.
There are many such, I am happy to say, but when it is otherwise,
it is good policy to keep them friendly, to listen to their com-
plaints, and recompense them if they want it. As regards foxes
killing lambs, there is a great deal of nonsense talked and of
misconception about it. That a fox will undoubtedly kill one,
if it is very weak, or sometimes, when a ewe has two, will nip
up one whilst she is defending the other, is a fact ; but it is
only when they are very small. The ewe is quite capable of
defending her lamb. One man declared to me that the foxes
came in troops and attacked his fold, which of course is ridicu-
lous, as foxes seek their prey ' single-handed,' and do not hunt
in troops like wolves. He said he could prove it, and laid
a dead lamb down. When it stank, of course foxes passing
winded it, and he found three foxes fighting over it. In almost
every case where a fox is found eating a lamb, it has been
killed by a dog, and generally by a sheep dog ; more often

HUNT SERVANTS. 155

than not by the lamb's own shepherd's dog. Foolishly, when
lambs die, the shepherds give them to their dogs. When the
larder is empty, doggy, being sagacious, forages for himself.
One certain way in which you can tell if a fox has killed a
lamb and begun eating it, is that he will do so by making a
hole in the side of the chest under one or other fore leg, and
getting at the heart. If a dog begins to eat it, he does so by
gnawing off the head or making a hole in the throat in endeavour-
ing to do so. I do not say that foxes never kill lambs, but I say
that such an occurrence is very rare. When it can be proved,
the lamb should be paid for ; but it requires good proof first.

Three cases have come to my knowledge, within the last
four or five years, in which farmers' belief in the harm done by
foxes has been eradicated. On two of these occasions the men
who had declared war against foxes made a party of three or
four with guns, and in both instances they slew the culprit.
There was a who-hoop ! and a rush at the animal they had
bowled over ; in one instance it was the farmer's own sheep
dog, in the other it was his neighbour's. In the other case
the farmer, if not actually convinced, was effectually cured of
his wish to destroy foxes. He sat up in a tree for two or three
nights waiting for his enemy. On the last night he went to
sleep, fell out of the tree, broke several of his ribs, and vowed
that for the future he would never try to shoot a fox. As
regards the claims for loss of poultry, they increase and multi-
pi} to a degree that threatens to make it one of the heaviest
items in the expense of keeping hounds. My hunting country
is a very large one. I should say, if the boundaries were
measured right round, it would be at least 160 miles. We have
divided it as well as we can into districts, and in each of these
some gentleman has kindly undertaken the very difficult task
of adjudicating as to whether the claim shall be paid or not. We
make a rule that no poultry shall be paid for that are not shut
up at night If a fox burglariously enters a hen roost and takes
and destroys, they must be paid for. The worst of a fox is that
he likes killing better than eating. He is the prototype of the

156 HUNTING.

Englishman looked at from the foreigner's point of view : ' God
dam it is fine to-day ! What shall we kill? ' If he would only
take the little that satisfies his appetite he would not be grudged
his food. But if there are twenty or thirty or more fowls that he
can get at, he will kill them all. He may take away three or
four and bury them and one to eat presently, but the rest he
leaves. Poultry taken in broad daylight near the owner's farm
or residence are paid for also. But we must have some proof,
such as the feathers strewn about, and like a paper chase
dropped on the line he has gone, for a fox makes a rare mess
when he kills poultry. In a country full of foxes, and where
such claims are paid, directly a fowl is missed, without inquiry
or demur, its loss is set down to the foxes ; and consequently
the two-legged foxes, in whose pots they might be often found,
get off with impunity. It is therefore very necessary to have
these claims inquired into and made out to be genuine. I
have had claims for calves and cows killed by foxes, but they
are too ridiculous to require any remarks from me. Bulls and
cart horses as yet have not been claimed for.

ARTIFICIAL FOX EARTHS.

In describing the various methods of making artificial fox
earths, or drains as they are called in some countries, it is of
course impossible to lay down any hard and fast rules, as their
construction must depend in every case upon local considera-
tions. A few of the principal points to be aimed at may be
noted, however, and the constructor must then use his judgment
in putting them in force according to circumstances.

Artificial earths are primarily meant for breeding establish-
ments, and among the chief points to be borne in mind are the
Aspect, Position, Soil, Drainage, Construction, Materials, and
Form of earth.

ARTIFICIAL FOX EARTHS. 157

With regard to Aspect, i.e. the aspect of the entrances or
mouths, it is first of all necessary to look at the habits of the young
cub. It will be found that he does not come out of the bowels of
the earth till he is about four or five weeks old, generally at first
only for an hour or two morning and evening, after sunrise and
before sunset ; and as it is a well-known fact that the sun has a
great power in making young animals healthy, it is evident that
the mouths of the earth should be situated where they will, catch
the most sun ; but at the same time it must be in such a place
that it is sheltered from the prevailing winds, and especially
from the north. It will be also noticed of young cubs that
for some weeks after coming out of the earth they keep close to
the mouth of the hole, gambolling and playing in a circle of a
few yards. Care should be taken, therefore, that the ground
round the mouth of the earth is of as dry a nature as possible,
as the little animals often play till they get hot and lie down,
and if the ground is at all swampy or wet they are very liable to
get what is commonly called ' yellows,' a canine form of jaundice ;
therefore let the aspect be as sunny as possible, sheltered from
the winds with dry gromid round the mouth of the hole.

With regard to the Position of the earth there are also
many points to be considered. Some people place their arti-
ficial earths in a gorse, but this I hold to be a mistake ; as if the
earth is put as it should be, away from a ride or path, the earth-
stopper when the gorse is grown up will have great difficulty in
finding the earth in the dead of night unless he has a mark to
guide him. The result of this will be that he will always go
the same way, and eventually make a conspicuous path right up
to the earth. Besides this, a gorse covert is a covert where
foxes are expected to lie above ground, and the keeper going
to stop the earth at night disturbs the covert for the next day's
draw. Moreover, in regard to the question of breeding, very
little sun would reach the mouth of the earth. To some extent
these objections apply to the making of earths in large coverts.
The best artificial earth is- probably one that is built in a small
spinney close by a large stronghold with a dell in it, the earth

158 HUNTING.

being placed on the north side of the dell, half-way up the
bank, so that the sun may get at it in the afternoon and evening.

The Soil of the place should be a matter of careful selection.
The great object to be aimed* at is that the vixen may have a
dry place to lie on and drop her cubs, and it is also an advan-
tage that she should be able to scratch or draw out a snug
corner in the lodging room to litter her offspring. It is the
instinctive nature of the vixen some few weeks before her con-
finement to scratch out and make for herself abed on what may
be called fresh soil in order that she may here lay up her cubs ;
and by giving her the opportunity of following her instincts there
is a greater chance of her taking to her artificial home. Chalk
we all know is the driest and best soil for this purpose, and it is
at the same time a soil that is easily moved by the burrowing
animal ; also, it is not so likely as gravel or sand to fall in.
Endeavour then to get your earth made where you have a sub-
soil of chalk. If no chalk site is obtainable, the nearest
possible approach to a soil of this nature is the best.

Drainage is also a matter of consequence, but one upon
which it is impossible to offer any very definite suggestions.
Everything depends on the situation, but this can be said :
always make the lodging room considerably higher than the
mouth of the hole. This will assist the drainage considerably,
also drain the ground outside the mouth if damp.

As for Construction and Materials, it is not advisable to
construct these earths in a smart or neat way. They should be
made as roughly as possible, and with as rough materials. The
outside cuts of trees, old bricks or flints anything, in fact, which
is sufficient to keep the ground from falling in,

Two matters ought to be taken into consideration. First,
that the first few feet of the entrance must not be large enough
to allow a terrier or cur dog to get in. Secondly, that there
should be more than one entrance to the lodging room, so that
in case of an enemy getting in the fox is able to slip round and
get out

'59

CHAPTER VI.

THE HORSE.

MANY stories are told of that facetious nobleman, Lord
Barrymore, the ' Cripplegate ' of those three brothers whose
eccentricities seem to have so largely delighted the old historians
of the turf. Not all of these are particularly interesting to us,
or creditable to his lordship's memory, but in the following,
related by ' The Druid,' there is a little grain of salt that has
sufficed to keep it still sweet enough for our purpose. He
walked one fine morning out on to the pavement in front of
his stables at Newmarket, and roared at the top of his voice,
' O yes ! O yes ! O yes ! who wants to buy a horse that can
walk five miles an hour, trot eighteen, and gallop twenty ? '
Of course a crowd was round my lord in a moment, and on
his repeating the flattering tale, there was no lack of aspirants
to the possession of this remarkable animal ; but they were
forced to content themselves with the assurance that 'When
I see such a horse I will be sure to let you know.' There is
no recorded reason for believing that such a wonder has yet
been found ; perhaps the nearest approach to it was that famous
steed of whom the enthusiastic dealer assured a doubting pur-
chaser, ' The shadow of him on the wall is worth all the money
I axes ; he can pick up his feet, and go, and catch a bird.'
But the desire for a good horse is as keen now as in Lord
Barrymore's time, and if the prices do not as a rule run quite
so high now as they did in the days Dick Christian has waxed
so eloquent over, nobody with a good animal to sell need ever
look long for a buyer.

160 HUNTING.

Mr. Sidney, in that vast equine encyclopaedia of his, 1 has
printed a ' table of contents ' of the stables of Algernon Percy,
fifth Earl of Northumberland, in 1512, which gives one a very
fair notion of the sort of stud a great nobleman of those days
thought it necessary for his comfort and dignity to maintain :

This is the ordre of the chequir roule of the nombre of all the
horsys of my lorde's and my lady's that are appointed to be in the
charge of the hous yerely, as to say, gentell hors, palfreys, hobys,
naggis, clotrisell hors, male hors.

First, gentell hors, to stand in my lorde's stable, six.

Item. Palfris for my ladis : to wit, oone for my lady, two for
her gentlewomen, and one for her chamberer.

Four hobys and nags for my lorde's oune saddell, viz. one for
my lorde to ride, one led for my lorde, and one to stay at home for
my lorde.

Item. Chariot hors to stand in my lorde's stable yearly ; seven
great trottynge hors to draw in the chariot, and a nag for the
chariot man to ride eight. Again, hors for Lord Percy, his
lordship's son and heir ; a great double trotting hors, called a
curtal, for his lordship to ride out of townes ; a proper amblynge
little nag, when he goethe hunting and haw king \ a great amblynge
gelding or trotting gelding, to carry his male.

A single hunter, it will be seen, was then thought sufficient
for a ' lord of high degree,' and though distinguished from the
rest, as kept for hunting and hawking only, he is somewhat con-
temptuously dismissed as an ' amblynge little nag,' though
' proper.'

But a century later things have advanced. Then we get
into the days of our friend Gervase Markham, a time which, as
Mr. Sidney rightly says, ' may be taken as a standpoint for
summing up the condition of the English horse before the
production of the thorough-bred racehorse, which was not
effected till nearly a hundred years later.' In James the First's
reign the English horse had become a notable beast He was
of foreign blood of course, as were the English men themselves,
of foreign blood mixed and mixed again with the native stock.

1 The Bock of the Horse, 2nd ed. ch. ii.

THE HORSE. 161

There were horses in Britain when Caesar landed with his
Romans ; ponies in the hilly wooded districts, others of larger
and stronger build on the rich pastures of the lowlands. The
Normans imported those solemn ponderous beasts one sees in
the Bayeux tapestry, and later, the Crusaders brought back
with them from their wild pilgrimage some Eastern strains,
'genets' as they were then called, and still are called in Spain.
From the earliest days our kings had made horseflesh their
care. Before the Norman rule, Athelstan had forbidden
English horses to be sent out of the country except as presents,
and one of the few good acts recorded of John is his impor-
tation of a hundred Flemish stallions. Edward III. tried to
make the breed lighter and speedier by the infusion of a
Spanish strain ; but it does not seem as though all this care
had been very efficacious, for in his French campaigns that
king found such difficulty in mounting his cavalry that he had
to send for large drafts from Hainault. Nevertheless of some
kind or other horseflesh was growing in our islands, in quantity
if not in quality, and to such an extent that Richard II. com-
pelled the dealers to fix their prices at a minimum value. In
Henry VII. 's reign the practice of gelding first came into use in
consequence of the vast herds of horses that were kept at grass
together. The eighth Henry took the matter in hand with his
usual vigour. He passed an Act of Parliament for the im-
provement of the breed of horses, the preamble to which ran
to this effect :

Forasmuch as the generation and breed of good and strong
horses within this realm extendeth not only to a great help and
defence of the same, but also is a great commodity and profit to
the inhabitants thereof, which is now much decayed and diminished
by reason that in forests, chaces, moors, and waste ground within
this realm, little stoned horses, and nags of small stature and of
little value, be not only suffered to pasture thereupon, but also to
cover mares feeding there, whereof cometh in manner no profit or
commodity.

This Act made it law that no entire horse above the age of

M

162 HUNTING.

two years and under fifteen hands high should be ' put in any
forest, chace, moor, heath, common, or waste within the shires
of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Buckingham, Huntingdon,
Essex, Kent, South Hants, Berks, North Wilts, Oxford, Wor-
cester, Gloucester, Somerset, Wales, Bedford, Warwick, Not-
tingham, Lancaster, Salop, Leicester, or Lincoln, nor under
fourteen hands in any other county.' It ordained also that
' all commons and other places shall, within fifteen days after
Michaelmas, be driven by the owners and keepers, ard if there
be found in any of the said drifts any mare not able to bear
foals of reasonable stature, or to do profitable labour, in the
discretion of the majority of the drivers, they may kill and bury
them.' The Archbishops and Dukes were each to keep seven
entire trotting horses, no one of which was to be under fourteen
hands high ; and every clergyman whose living was worth a
hundred pounds yearly, or whose wife could afford a bonnet of
velvet, was to keep one such horse. By a subsequent Act all
owners of inclosed grounds to the extent of one mile were
ordered to keep two mares thirteen hands high (hand/nils was
the old expression) for breeding purposes ; where the grounds
were four miles in extent, four such mares were to be kept. The
counties of Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Northumberland,
and the bishopric of Durham, were exempted from these laws,
all violations or neglect of which were strictly punished ; or, at
any rate, ought to have been if the officers did their duty.
Henry is also said to have imported fresh blood from Turkey,
Naples, and Spain, all famous for their breed of horses in those
days. Nevertheless the result does not seem for all his care to
have been worth very much. In 1588, when England was
looking out from her cliffs for the coming of the great Armada,
only three thousand cavalry could be mustered, though Catholic
and Protestant alike forgot their quarrels as they rallied to their
Queen's call. And these horses were, according to a contem-
porary, 'very indifferent, strong, heavy, slow draught- horses, or
light and weak.'

Markham was writing only a quarter of a century later,

THE HORSE. 163

yet, unless he or Blundeville (the aforesaid contemporary) has
largely exaggerated, a vast change must have taken place in our
horseflesh within those years. James was the first king to
import an Eastern sire for the express purpose. But ' the
Arabian horse,' called ' Markham' after the merchant from whom
he was bought for i54/., did not set foot in England till 1616,
the date of Gervase Markham's book. The improvement,
therefore, cannot have been due to the Arabian, who was,
moreover, a notorious failure. At any rate, Markham (the
man, not the horse) is very plain-spoken in his approval of the
English horse of his day, and as he had travelled and knew well
what he was writing about, his praise cannot be set down to
mere 'provincialism.' He says :

I do daily find in mine experience, that the virtue, goodness,
boldness, swiftness, and endurance of our true-bred English horses
is equal with any race of horses whatsoever. Some former writers,
whether out of want of experience, or to flatter novelties, have con-
cluded that the English horse is a great strong jade, deep-ribbed,
sid-bellied, with strong legs and good hoofs, yet fitter for the cart
than either saddle or any working employment. How false this is
all English horsemen know. The true English horse, him I mean that
is bred under a good clime, on firm ground, in a pure temperature, is
of tall stature and large proportions ; his head, though not so fine
as either the Barbary's or the Turk's, yet is lean, long, and well-
fashioned ; his crest is high, only subject to thickness if he be stoned,
but if he be gelded then it is firm and strong ; his chine is straight
and broad ; and all his limbs large, lean, flat, and excellently jointed.
For their endurance I have seen them suffer and execute as much
and more than ever I noted of any foreign creation. I have heard
it reported that at the massacre of Paris (St. Bartholomew) Mont-
gomerie, taking an English mare in the night, first swam over the
river Seine, and after ran her so many leagues as I fear to nomi-
nate, lest misconstruction might tax me of too lavish a report.
Again, for swiftness, what nation has brought forth that horse which
hath exceeded the English when the best Barbarys that everwere
in their prime, I saw them overrun by a black hobby at Salisbury;
yet that hobby was more overrun by a horse called Valentine, which
Valentine neither in hunting or running was ever equalled, yet
was a plain-bred English horse both by sire and dam? Again, for

M 2

1 64 HUNTING.

infinite labour and long endurance, which is to be desired in our
hunting matches, I have not seen any horse to compare with the
English. He is of tolerable shape, strong, valiant, and durable.

A contemporary, Michael Barratt, 1 writes pretty much in
the same strain, though ' for all general uses, for service (that
is, war), swiftness, and proud going, as well as for pleasure pace
as a gallant trot,' he thinks, ' the Barbary and the Turkey
stallions are the best.' But for 'toughness' he holds by the
English horse, a cross between one of the foreigners and an
English mare.

Markham was the first to really distinguish the hunter from
other horses, to explain his points and qualities, and call atten-
tion to the particular circumstances necessary for his proper
breeding, training, and keeping. His remarks are worth con-
sidering ; entertaining of course, as all his writing, but also
very sensible (as, too, he generally is), and not very much
perhaps to be improved on by modern experts.

Although some men hold an opinion that every horse which
can gallop may be made a hunting horse, and albeit we daily see
that many horses, which indeed can do no more but gallop (and that
not long together neither) are ordinarily used in this exercise of
hunting, yet I am of that mind, that if a horse has not some virtue
more than ordinary, as either in his swiftness, toughness, wind or
courage, that he is not worthy the name of a hunting horse, and
neither doth deserve the labour, cost, and good food which he must
eat, nor the grace to be employed in such an honourable pastime.

Now therefore to save ill-employed cost, and the repentance
which follows hours that are in vain wasted, you shall (being ad-
mitted to pursue this pleasure) be exceeding careful in the choice of
that horse which you intend for hunting. For as before I told you
in the breeding of horses, some are good for service in the wars,
some for running, some for coach, some for cart, and some for the
hamper, now all these in their kind good, yet very few excellent in
general for all these uses whatsoever, and those few which are so
well compounded, both of mind and body, that they are fit for any
purpose, they only and none else are most excellent for hunting, as
having the strength of the war horse, the toughness of the hunting

1 The Vineyard of Horsemanship, 1618.

THE HORSE. 165

horse, the good pace of the traveller, the swiftness of the runner, a
good breast for the coach, a strong joint for the cart, and a back
like a beam for the hamper.

But forasmuch as there be three especial characters or faces by
which a man shall choose a good hunting horse, to wit his breed,
his colour, and the shape of his lineaments, 1 will by them show
you what observations you shall regard when you make choice for
this purpose.

And first for his breed, if he be either bastard Jennet or bastard
Polander, his breed is not amiss ; for I have known of all these
sorts of bastards excellent hunting horses. Now if you demand
what I mean by this word bastard, it is when a horse is begotten
by any of these country horses upon a fair English mare, or by a
fair bred English horse upon any of these country mares ; but
neither to flatter other countries, nor to take from our own that
which is due unto it, the world doth not afford in all points (both
for toughness and swiftness being joined together) a better horse
than the true-bred English horse for hunting : which assertion
should I maintain by the best proof, which is example, and could
repeat so many instances as were sufficient to fill up the rest of this
volume, but I will not at this instant be so troublesome.

Through all the many gradations of colour we need not
follow Markham. In his day the colour of a horse was a very
particular point, and considered an infallible indication of his
temper and qualities. The saying we go by now that ' a good
horse cannot be of a bad colour' a saying, by the way, clearly
susceptible of more readings than one would not. have been
allowed by him for a moment. ' As a horse is coloured, so is
he for the most part complexioned : and according to his com-
plexion, so is his disposition of good or evil quality.' Such was
our forefathers' opinion, and very ingeniously did they go about
to explain it. We will satisfy ourselves, however, for the present
by noting that brown bays, dapple greys, black ' with silver hairs,'
'well mixed ' roans, the 'ashy ' grey, and ' the white liard, which
hath his outward parts, as the tips of his ears, mane, tail, feet,
and suchlike, black,' were all in lavour. A black horse with no
relief of white whatever, is much to be avoided, for ' he is furious,
dogged, full of mischief and misfortunes.' A bay or chestnut,

1 66 HUNTING.

on the other hand, without such relief might be made something
of, 'only in his pace and natural motions he will be fantastical,
forgetful, and uncertain.' Then, for the shape :

His head should be somewhat long, lean, and large, with a
spacious wide chaule, both thin and open ; his ear if it be short and
sharp, it is best, but if it be long and upright, it is a sign of speed
and good mettle. His forehead long and rising in the midst, the
feather thereof standing above the top of his eye ; his eyes full and
round ; his nostrils wide and without rawness ; his mouth large and
hairy ; his thropple within his chaule as much as a man can grip
and by no means fleshly or so closed with fatness, that a man can
hardly find it (as many fine-shaped horses are), the setting on of his
head to his neck would be strong, but thin, so as a man may put
his hand betwixt his neck and his chaule, and not bull-crag-like,
thick and full, that one cannot easily discern where his chap lieth ;
his crest strong and well-risen ; his neck straight, firm, and as it
were of one piece with his body and not (as my countrymen say)
withy-cragged, which is loose and pliant. The thropple or nether
part of the neck, which goes from the underchaps to the breast,
should, when the horse reineth, be straight and even, not bending
like a bow, which is called cock-throttled and is the greatest sign of
an ill-wind. If the nether-chaps, and that nether part of the neck
also be full of long hair, and bearded down to the setting on of the
breast, it is a sign of much swiftness : a broad strong breast, a
short chin, an out rib, a well-hidden belly, short and well-knit
joints, flat legs exceeding short, straight and upright pasterns, which
is a member above all others to be noted ; his hoofs both black and
strong, yet long and narrow ; and for his mane and tail, the thinner
the more spirit, the thicker the greater sign of dulness ; to be (as
some term it) sickle-houghed behind, that is somewhat crooked in the
gambrel joint, as hares and greyhounds are, is not amiss, though it
be a little eyesore. And for my own part I have seen many good
which have borne that proportion.

Of course the hunter of those days, and of days very much
later, was an altogether different sort of animal from that in vogue
with us. The hunter as we know him now may be said to have
come in with the century, just as the style of hunting now
practised came in. 'Nimrod,' who had some knowledge of the
old order as well as the new, writes thus of the changes the

THE HORSE. 167

latter has made necessary in the composition and circumstances
of the English hunter :

The half-bred horse of the early part of the last century was
when highly broken to his work, a delightful animal to ride, in
many respects more accomplished as a hunter than the generality
of those of the present day. When in his best form he was a truly
shaped and powerful animal, possessing prodigious strength, with
a fine commanding frame, considerable length of neck, a slight
curve in his chest, which was always high and firm, and the head
beautifully put on. Possessing these advantages, in addition to
very great pains taken with his mouth in the bitting, and an ex-
cellent education in the school or at the bar, he was what is termed
a complete snaffle-bridle horse, and a standing as well as a flying
leaper. Held well in hand his rider standing up in the stirrups,
holding him fast by the head, making the best of, and being able
to pick or choose his ground such a horse would continue a chase
of some hours' duration at the pace he was called upon to go, taking
his fences well and safely to the last ; and he would frequently
command the then large sum of loo guineas, But all these accom-
plishments would never have enabled a horse of this description to
carry the modern sportsman, who rides well up to modern fox-
hounds, on a good scenting day, over one of our best hunting
countries. His wind would be spent and his strength exhausted
before he had gone twenty minutes by the increased pace at which
he must be called upon to travel, but to which his breeding would
be quite unequal ; and his true symmetry, his perfect fencing, his
fine mouth, and all his other points, would prove of very little
avail. If ridden close to the hounds, he would be powerless and
dangerous before he had gone across half a dozen Leicestershire
inclosures. The increased pace of hounds, and that of the
horses that follow them, have an intimate connection with each
other, if not with the march of intellect. Were not the hounds of
our day to go so fast as they do, they would not be able to keep
clear of the crowd of riders who are now mounted on horses nearly
equal to the racing pace. On the other hand, as the speed of
hounds has so much increased, unless their followers ride speedy,
and, for the most part, thorough-bred horses, they cannot see out a
run of any continuance, if the scent lies well. True it is, that at
the present time, every Leicestershire hunter is not thorough-bred ;
but what is termed the cocktail, or half-bred horse of this day is a
very different animal from that of a hundred years back. In those

1 68 HUNTING.

days, a cross between the thorough-bred, or perhaps not quite
thorough-bred, horse and the common draught mare, was con-
sidered good enough to produce hunters equal to the speed of the
hounds then used. There was not such an abundance of what may
be termed the intermediate variety of the horse in the country
'pretty well bred on each side of the head' which has of late
years been in demand for the fast coaches of England, in which
low-bred horses have no chance to live. Mares of this variety,
put to thorough-bred stallions, and their produce crossed with pure
blood, create the sort of animal that comes now under the de-
nomination of the half-bred English hunter, or cocktail. 1

This question of blood has always been a vexed one among
hunting men. Dick Christian has decided pithily as usual in
their favour. ' Give me 'em lengthy, short-legged for Leister-
shire ; I wouldn't have 'em no bigger than fifteen-three : great
rump, hips, and hocks ; fore-legs well afore them, and good
shoulders ; thorough-bred if you can get them, but none of your
high short horses. Thorough- bred horses make the best hunters.
I never heard of a great thing yet but it was done by a thorough-
bred horse.'' 2 Whyte-Melvilie, too, held by the same creed. 3 ' In
all the qualities of a hunter,' he says, ' the thorough bred horse
is, I think, superior to the rest of his kind.' He adds, however,
'though undoubtedly the best, I cannot affirm that they are
always \hepleasantest mounts. The horse he had in his eye is
not one bred expressly for hunting but a cast-off from a racing
stable, one found not fast enough to be worth training, or rather
one whose 'distance is found to be just short of half a mile,'
one who ' fails under the strain on wind and frame, of galloping
at its very best, eight hundred and seventy yards, and fades into
nothing in the next ten.' This failure in his opinion is a
question more of speed than stamina: ' There is a want of reach
or leverage somewhere, that makes its rapid action too laborious
to be lasting, but there is no reason why the animal that comes
short of five furlongs on the trial ground, should not hold its
own in front, for five miles of a steeplechase, or fifteen of a run

1 Quarterly Review, March 1832. 2 Silk and Scarlet, ch. i.

3 Riding Recollections, ch. x.

THE HORSE. 169

with hounds.' His commendation of the steeplechaser as hunter
is one we fancy not generally shared, but, as usual, he gives
reasons for his taste worth considering :

A good steeplechaser, properly sobered and brought into his
bridle, is one of the pleasantest hunters a man can ride, particularly
in a flying country. He is sure to be able to make haste in all sorts
of ground, while the smooth easy stride that wins between the flags
is invaluable through dirt. He does not lose his head and turn
foolish, as do many good useful hunters when bustled along for a
mile or two at something like racing pace. Very quick over his
fences, his style of jumping is no less conducive to safety than
despatch, while his courage is sure to be undeniable, because the
slightest tendency to refuse would have disqualified him for success
in his late profession, wherein also he must necessarily have learnt
to be a free and brilliant water jumper.

Such a nag as this would certainly be a pleasant one to
ride ; and no doubt a horse good enough to win the Liverpool
under eleven stone or more would be both a brilliant and a
safe mount across Leicestershire. But all steeplechasers are
not good enough to win that race under such a weight; indeed,
they seem to get scarcer every year ; and all hounds do not run
across Leicestershire. Much as we respect Whyte-Melville's
opinion on all matters connected with horseflesh, we have
to doubt whether a man would be wise to look for a hunter in
a steeplech.asing stable now-a-days. He might get hold of a
pearl of course, but the chances are, to say the least, very
doubtful. Even with a horse taken out of a racing stable
Why te- Melville owns immense pains must be taken to make
him really fit for hounds. He warns you ' not to feel dis-
appointed that he seems to require more time and tuition
than his lower-born cousins.' ' It is not that he has less
valour but more discretion ! In the monotonous progress of
training he has acquired, with other tiresome tricks, the habit
of doing as little as he can, in the different paces, walk, canter,
and gallop, of which he has become so weary.' And he tells
a story of the difficulty that famous horseman, Sir Charles

i?o HUNTING.

Knightley, had in persuading his scarce less famous hunter, Sir
Marinel, even to look at a fence when first taken out of training.
Yet this horse, with Benvolio, also a thorough-bred one, were
far and away the best Sir Charles ever rode.

Colonel Cook is as thorough an advocate for blood as
Whyte-Melville, but he rather shakes his head at the training
stable. ' Many fox hunters,' he says, ' prefer thorough-bred
horses, others cocktails ; I always gave the preference to the
former, if it was possible to get them. It is the general opinion
that thorough -bred horses cannot leap so well as cocktails : I
think otherwise ; and if you will try the experiment, by taking
ten young horses of the former and ten of the latter sort, I am
convinced you will find the thorough-bred ones to have the
advantage, and naturally to clear their fences with more ease
to themselves. Horses that have been in training for years
cannot be expected to make hunters ; but, nevertheless, what
superiority has a thorough-bred one in every respect above all,
in speed, bottom, and wind ! 'It often happens when a cocktail
is at the height of his speed, a thorough-bred is only at three-
quarters, and the latter will always go through dirt (as the term
is) best.'

' The Druid ' l gives us the word of an old hunter breeder,
that he could never get exactly the animal his heart was set on,
till he put his short-legged cart mare to a thorough-bred horse, 2
and crossed her first filly foal (' laid up in lavender till she was
rising five ') with a thorough-bred. ' The Druid's ' own idea is
that the size should be on the side of the dam, and the breeding
on that of the sire ; ' a large roomy mare should be put to a
small compact blood horse ; ' and he calls Sir Harry Goodricke
(no mean authority) in evidence. Another friend of his, vaguely
described as ' one of the finest horsemen and judges of the day,'
gave him this standard for a good hunter, as good a piece

1 Observations on Fox Hunting.

2 My own experience is that unless the mare is well bred the produce lacks
speed. I prefer both Sire and Dam to be well bred, but a well-bred mare and
an under-bred horse will produce a faster animal than a thorough-bred horse
and an under -bred mare. EDITOR.

THE HORSE.

171

of advice for an intending purchaser to carry in his mind as
any we know of :

Had I to choose a hunter by seeing one point only, it should he
his head ; for I never knew one with a small, clean, intelligent face
and prominent eyes to be bad. I like his neck also to be muscular,
but not heavy ; shoulders well back, with long arms ; short from
the knee to the fetlock ; pasterns rather long but not upright ; his
feet cannot well be described on paper, but they should be large
and perfect, or all the rest is as ' leather and prunella.' His back

' Had I to choose by one point, it should be his head.'

should not be too short, and he should have stout loins and wide
hips, and good length from the latter to his hocks, which should be
rather turned inwards. Added to this he should be large round the
girth, but whether in depth or width does not much signify ; and
the higher he is bred the greater his intelligence, and the speedier
his recovery from the effects of a hard day. 1

The objections to thorough-bred hunters come mostly from
heavy men. No doubt the system of handicapping has pro-

1 Post and Paddock, ch. xiii.

172 HUNTING.

duced an inordinate number of ' weeds ' among our racing
stock, and it may also be said that the majority of our steeple-
chasers would not carry heavy men, either fast or far, to hounds.
But size, it must be remembered, does not necessarily mean
strength ; it has been well said, ;'/ is action that carries weight.
A thorough-bred horse is always bigger than he looks, and
stronger. Nevertheless, it would be unwise to expect that these
always make the best hunters. It may be, as Dick Christian
said, that the greatest things have always been done by the
thorough-breds ; ' blood,' as the old adage goes, ' will tell,' and
no doubt in difficulties the blood horse will show the most
courage, will struggle the longest, and often get himself and his
rider out of scrapes which his lowlier-bred cousin will accept as
inevitable. Still, in the heavy cramped countries the plebeian
will often prove as useful as the aristocrat ; and possibly, from
his more phlegmatic temperament, a safer conveyance. Where
it is rather necessary for a horse to be as nimble as a cat, as
thick-skinned as a badger, and as patient as an ass, than to
gallop fast and leap big, a three-quarter, or even half-bred
horse is as useful a beast as a man need wish. There is also
rather a sense of these high-couraged, high-bred animals being
wasted in such countries, to say nothing of their high prices.
Perhaps, after all is said on either side, the safest verdict to
fall back upon is this, that, whereas a half-bred horse cannot be
made of use in the great grass countries, a thorough-bred horse
can be made of use anywhere.

The saying, a good horse cannot be of a bad colour, is, as
we have seen, susceptible of a double interpretation ; so is that
other saying, a good horse cannot be of a bad shape. A horse
may be perfect to a hair's breadth in every proportion, yet tho-
roughly worthless as a hunter ; on the other hand, many first-rate
hunters have been very queerly shaped, ' rum 'uns to look at,
but devils to go,' as the old song says. Mr. Sidney gives in his
book a portrait of a famous hunter, Unknown, who had carried
the thirteen stone of his master, Mr. John Bennett, for many
seasons with the Quorn and Pytchley without a fall, and was

THE HORSE. 173

declared by Sir Richard Sutton, then hunting the former pack,
to be one of the best animals he ever saw cross Leicestershire.
If the portrait tell truth, no man certainly would have bought
Unknown for his shape, to say nothing of the fact that he was
under fifteen hands high. One of the first points a buyer looks
at in a horse required to carry weight is the back. When the
nature of the horse's anatomy is considered, and the position of
the saddle, it will be clear that a back disproportionately long
is, to say the least, not the one thing needful. Yet Whyte-Mel-
ville tells us that the best hunter owned by each of the three
heaviest men he ever saw ride perfectly straight to hounds had
that fault. These were Sober Robin, owned by Mr. Richard
Gurney, who rode twenty stone ; a bay horse belonging to Mr.
Wood, of Brixworth Hall, who was no lighter, and used to vow
his horse ' had as many vertebra? as a crocodile ; ' and a black
mare, belonging to Colonel Wyndham, at least three inches too
long behind the saddle. 'I remember also,' he adds, 'seeing
the late Lord Mayo ride fairly away from a Pytchley field, no
easy task between Lilbourne and Cold Ashby, on a horse that,
except for its enormous depth of girth arguing unfailing wind,
seemed to have no good points whatever to catch the eye.
It was tall, narrow, plain-headed, with very bad shoulders and
very long legs, all this to carry at least eighteen stone ; but it
was nearly, if not quite, thorough-bred? Certainly no good
horse, no horse at all one might say, could well have a more
extensive collection of bad points than this. The bad shoulders,
for instance ; what man. unless he ' knew something,' would buy
a horse to ride, let alone to ride to hounds, with bad shoulders,
the very first qualification, as is universally agreed, for carrying a
saddle with comfort and safety to its occupant ? Emblem, that
famous steeplechasing mare, was saved by her shoulders. With
her light middle-piece, and badly ribbed-up, she was anything
but a promising beast to the eye. Yet she won the Birmingham,
Derby, Liverpool, Doncaster, and Cheltenham Steeplechases
in 1863, and in 1865 the Leamington and Cheltenham Grand
Annuals. 'She won her steeplechases,' wrote her owner, Lord

174 HUNTING.

Coventry, to Mr. Sidney, 'at her fences; and I attribute her
extraordinary quickness in jumping to her shoulders.' l Gayman,
the favourite mount of the giant Tom Edge, Assheton Smith's
silent friend, was, in Dick Christian's graphic phrase, ' a queer-
looking creature, thin neck, large head, raw hips, and a rat tail,
for all the world like a seventeen-hands dog-horse ; ' yet, in a

1 An extensive collection of bad points.'

famous Leicestershire run, thirteen miles from Botany Bay to
SLiwston Windmill, only four men saw the fox killed, and
Edge on Gayman was one of the four.

The northern counties have from time immemorial been the
best nurseries for hunters. In the seventeenth century the fame
cf Malton and Richmond fairs was great ; the latter was held
in Easter week and at Rood-tide, the former on September 23.
Good horses were to be bought, too, at Ripon and North-

1 The Book of the Horse, ch. iv.

THE HORSE. i?5

ampton. 1 Horncastle Fair, held between the icth and zoth
of August, was for long the most celebrated for all kinds of
horses. But the plough has rather spoilt the Lincolnshire breed,
once the first in the world for hunters, both in quantity and
quality ; the hunters bred there are still wonderfully good, but
there are not so many of them, and Howden, in the East Riding
of Yorkshire, where the fair begins on September 25 and lasts
for fourteen days, has rather usurped the fame of Horncastle.
At Newcastle-on-Tyne, in August and October, and at Rugeley,
in Staffordshire, in the first week in June, there is also much
buying and selling of horseflesh. At Cahirmee, in county Cork,
there is a well-known fair in July, and one at Ballinasloe, in
county Galway, in October. Whyte-Melville maintains that
' handsome, clever, hunting-like animals, fit to carry thirteen
stone, and capital jumpers, at reasonable prices, varying from
one to two hundred pounds,' are still far more plentiful in Ireland
than in England. He adds this too : ' They possess also the
merit of being universally well-bred. Till within a few years,
there was literally no cart-horse blood in Ireland. The " black-
drop" of the ponderous Clydesdale remained positively un-
known ; and although the Suffolk Punch has been recently in-
troduced, he cannot yet have sufficiently tainted the pedigrees
of the country, to render us mistrustful of a golden-coated
chestnut, with a round barrel and a strong back.'

But buying a hunter first-hand at a fair is, of course, a tre-
mendous lottery even for the keenest and most practised eye.
Even if your eye tell you true, if the material is got ready to
your hand, there is the making it up. Ready-made hunters are
not bought at fairs. The farmers go there to pick up promising
three- or four-year olds, giving from 8o/. to i2o/. for them, hoping
after a year's schooling or so, either at their own or a breaker's
hands, to sell again at a good profit. The dealers go there not
so much to buy as to see what is bought, to mark the likely ones
down, and be able to lay hands on them afterwards when the
hour ccmes and the man. But if you go into the lottery yourself

1 The Hunter: a Discourse of Horsemanship, 1685.

176 HUNTING.

you must take your chance. How many hunting men, even if
they have the skill and the patience, have the time needful to
make a young horse ? Hear Dick Christian on the subject :

When they're taken into the stable, give them plenty of air and
walking exercise three or four hours each day ; whatever you do
never make them sweat. Give 'em an ounce of sulphur and half
an ounce of nitre in their corn twice a week ; for the first month I
like new hay better than old, but it must be the very best. Give
them plenty of walking exercise up hill, and now and then give
them a trot, but not too much of it. You may increase it by degrees ;
then walking over ridge and furrow is a grand thing to give them
action. Action's the thing ; if they haven't got it, they're like a
pump without a handle, blessed if they ain't. The less you gallop
hunters the better ; all you want of them is to be in good condition,
and fresh on their legs. It's all very well galloping racehorses if
you like ; but no horse should go very fast or know their best pace
till they're put to the test. There's many a good horse spoiled by
them tricks. I says, let me have a horse a bit above himself; he's
much pleasanter to ride, and better able to do a right good day's
work. Never press a horse very hard going down hill ; it beats
them far more than if they go fast up hill. When I wanted them
to leap, I always took them to a very low bar, knee high ; hold
them there till you get him on to his hind legs, then let him go ;
likely as not he'll drop on the bar ; take him to it again and again ;
if he turns a bit nervous, wait with him ; when you've got him to
go from his hind legs, then start him the same way with water, four
feet wide. I was very fond of beginning them with a bit of timber
like the body of a tree in a park. They can't get a leg in ; if they
force themselves against it they pick over ; they must spread them-
selves. When you get him to the fences begin with small places ;
first walk him to them ; then trot him ; you'll soon find you may
take him at them any pace you like. It's only confidence he wants ;
then you may take liberties with him, but do it in good temper, and
keep him in the same. He'll soon get confidence for the stitchers.
Whatever you do, never go fast at them ; don't go too slow or he'll
stop ; and many horses have been spoilt that way ; give him time
to get his hind legs under him ; if you're too slow they buck, jump
short, and don't spread themselves, and then down you both goes.
When you takes a horse at his jumps hold him steady by the head,
not pulling him hard j the longer you hold him steady the farther

THE HORSE. 177

he'll go. A horse doesn't jump the farthest by going over fast at his
fences, or water ; he wants to get his stride well up to them ; he
can't go to last long if he's not kept collected ; he'll soon be beat,
particular in deep ground, and ridge and furrow. When I go to
try a horse on such like ground, down hill is what I choose : if they
have action to do that all right, they will make something. I don't
care anything about up hill. ... I never used thick bits. Nearly
all horses ride better with a curb than a snaffle ; but mind you
never use too sharp a one ; they only irritate the horse. I always
puts the hunting curb on the first time with young horses ; you
must let 'em have plenty of liberty to play with the bridle, but mind
as his tongue don't slip under the bit ; this is the most consequence
of anything. . . . When your horse refuses his fence never spur or
maul him about ; they doesn't know where they are and comes to
no good. They want a bit of riding after all this to get them into
form for a lady or gentleman. I trot them with the right leg first,
head a little to the left, and quarters to the right. Then I takes
them into some riding school, and rides them round and round,
right-hand way ; first walking, then trotting, not too much of it.
Pet him and chat to him a bit, and give him a piece of carrot with
your left hand ; I've had a good ton or two of carrots about me one
time or another. When you begin to canter him round, get him on
to his hind legs, and go as slow as you possibly can. Be uncommon
quiet with him ; keep him right leg first ; if he changes take hold
of both your reins level, pull lightly with your right, and put your
left hand forward on both reins, leaning down as much as required. 1

The old rough-rider, it will be seen, begins at the very begin-
ning, whereas a horse bought out of one of these famous fairs has
probably had some sort of schooling. It is pretty sure, however,
to have been of a somewhat primitive, and not quite sure to
have been of the right sort. In any case it will certainly not
have been such as to enable the purchaser to flatter himself that
he has bought a hunter, though he may possibly have bought
the materials for the best a man ever threw his leg across. It
is, then, clear that to look for your hunter in these quarters,
apart from its intrinsic hazard, cannot be recommended to any
man who has not a great deal of time on his hands, a stock of
patience beyond that enjoyed by the most part of humanity, and
1 Silk and Scarlet, ch. i.

*78 HUNTING.

also a sufficient quantity of matured horseflesh to supply his
wants till the new purchase shall be ripe for business. At the
same time the pleasure of fitting yourself in this fashion is not
to be gainsaid, nor the profit when all turns out well.

But how impertinent do all warnings seem to the inex-
perienced man, when once he has screwed his courage up to
resolve on venturing for himself into these perilous places.
For timid as some are in these matters, when once this timidity
is put aside, your ' green hand ' is as ' cock-sure ' as ever was
Macaulay in his gayest moods. The world of horseflesh, by
the way, was perhaps the only department of human knowledge in
which that great man would at no time of his life have been
confident of his supremacy. Only one instance is given in
Mr. Trevelyan's delightful biography of his having been in the
saddle, and that was on the back of a diminutive Sheltie, in
one of his Scotch tours, while a huge native walked on guard at
the bridle rein. Once, when he was setting off on a visit to
Windsor, and it was intimated to him that a riding horse as
well as a carriage would be at his disposal, as he might prefer,
he made answer that, if the Queen wished him to ride, she
must send an elephant with a howdah, as he could not under-
take to keep his seat on any less secure conveyance. The
inexperienced buyer, who scorns to put his trust in a friend's
superior knowledge, is in the condition described by the poet :
Man never is, but always to be blest.

Strange stories has he heard, too good not to be true, of all
manner of wiles and devices of cheats, to put it plainly
practised on the unwary ; but himself, he feels confident, is
not to be thus imposed on. Yet what experience, what know-
ledge, what counter- cunning, shall avail to save him from such
a fate as this, told in his pleasant autobiography by Mr. Yates
on the authority of the late Sir Alexander Cockburn ? l We will
tell it in Mr. Yates's own words, which are better than any we
could furnish :

1 Edmund Yates, his Recollections and Experiences, ii. 134-5.

THE HORSE. 179

A man saw a very handsome chestnut horse at Horncastle fair,
and was astonished at the lowness of the price asked for it. After
some chaffering he became the purchaser, taking it without warranty
or anything else ; and having paid his money, he gave a ' tip ' of
five shillings to the groom, and asked him what was really the matter
with the animal that he should be sold so cheap. The man, after
some hesitation, declared that the horse was a perfect animal with
the exception of two faults. ' Two faults ! ' said the purchaser ;
' well, tell me one of them.' ' One is,' said the man, ' that when
you turn him into a field he is very difficult to catch.' ' That,' said
the purchaser, ' is no harm to me, as I make a point of always
keeping my horses in the stable, and never turning them into the
field. Now of the other?' 'The other,' said the man, scratching
his head, and looking slyly up, 'the other is that when you have
caught him he is not worth a rap,'

The custom of warranties, one may observe, has rather
gone out of fashion now. Even when given with the best faith
they opened a terribly wide door to litigation. No lapse of
time puts an end to them, none, that is to say, by law defined.
If a jury can be persuaded to believe that a horse who has
become unsound as a three-year-old had the germs of his
unsoundness latent in him when sold with a warranty as a
yearling, it is all up with the seller. And a ' British Judy ' (to
borrow Mrs. Crupp's time-honoured paraphrase), prone as it is
to strange notions of things, is never, it may be parenthetically
observed, so prone as in matters of or belonging to that noble
animal, the horse. Sometimes a limited warranty will be given,
valid for a month, or some period shorter or longer, as the case
may be. But any such limit must inevitably, however unjustly,
be touched with some sense of suspicion. An examination
by a skilled veterinary surgeon, and a fair trial, are as good
pledges as any warranty. They are what the best class of
dealers generally offer, and what buyers will be wisest to take.

Buying at Tattersall's, or at any public auction, is of course
something of a lottery too. But the chances against you here are
much less, allowing of course that you do not neglect the ordi
nary precautions which a prudent man will observe in any trans-

N 2

i8o HUNTING.

action. Indeed at Tattersall's it is mainly a question of money.
The man, who does not mind opening his purse wide, will
rarely fail to find himself suited, but he must open it, and wider
too, it seems, every day. We are supposing, of course, that he
intends buying only such horses as come to the hammer with
an established and trustworthy reputation : if he buys merely
because he likes the look of an animal, without knowing more
about it than the person in charge or some other equally inte-
rested and communicative individual may choose to tell him,
heaven help him we cannot. In every hunt there are always
a certain number of good nags whose merits are well known, and
whose price can be fairly calculated. There is no better chance,
for a man who need not trouble himself over-much about prices,
for picking up a good hunter than this, nor does it at all follow
that he will do better to buy privately than to wait and take his
chance in the auction yard. When the stud is the property of
some famous ' performer ' in the grass countries, of course the
competition will be brisk and the prices high. When the late
Lord Stamford gave up the Quorn hounds in 1863, and sent his
stud to the hammer, the seventy-three horses realised nearly
fourteen thousand guineas, an average of about two hundred
pounds apiece, probably the highest ever known for so large a
stud. In 1826 Mr. George Payne had reached an even higher
average, but with a smaller stud ; his twenty-seven hunters and
hacks realising a sum of seven thousand five hundred guineas.

In the autumn of 1884 the stud of a young officer, who
had had to give up hunting foxes in Leicestershire for hunting
Arabs in the Soudan, was sold at Tattersall's at an average of
two hundred and fifty pounds apiece. The pick of the famous
Lord Wilton's stable brought as much as six hundred pounds !

It is probable, however, that first-rate hunters may be
bought now for rather more rational prices than our grand-
fathers used to give. In the palmy days of the Old Club at
Melton, the buying and selling of horses was quite a feature
of the evening's amusement 'Parties were often made on
purpose,' says ' The Druid,' ' and after a couple of bottles of

THE HORSE. 181

claret, business became quite brisk. Each owner had one
reserve bid, and it was quite a sight the next morning to watch
the different horses change stables, to the great bewilderment
of the grooms.' The great time of high prices was in Lord
Plymouth's day, who was never himself a particularly hard
rider. Among his most costly freaks was giving ' the Squire '
six hundred guineas for a horse which had already seen six
seasons' work. He gave Sir Bellingham Graham one thousand
guineas for a couple cf nags ; and Mr. Peter Allix seven
hundred for a mare he had only seen out once, and which
proved a very bad bargain. A horse called Confidence, once,
and more than once, the property of that rare old veteran
Mr. Lackley, was sold many times over for all prices ranging
from seven hundred and fifty to six hundred guineas, and once,
it is said, to Lord Plymouth for one thousand. The facetious
Lord Alvanley was another who would open his purse as wide
as it would go when the fancy took him. It is told of him
that being asked once why he had gone out of his line in a run
to get at the widest part of the Whissendine, he answered,
' What is the use of giving seven hundred guineas for a horse
if he's not to do more than other horses ? ' Sober Robin, the
famous nag on whose back the monstrous Dick Gurney used
to go pounding along with a pound weight of gold and silver
jingling in his waistcoat, was originally bought at Lincoln Fair
for eighty pounds, and sold to Mr. Gurney for one hundred.
He is described as 'a handsome, short-legged brown animal,
perhaps a trifle under sixteen-one,' and for twelve seasons
he carried his owner's nineteen stone to the front over the
Northamptonshire pastures. The most wonderful feat the pair
ever performed has been thus immortalised by our useful friend,
' The Druid ' :

Sir Charles Knightley's leap of thirty-one feet over a fence and
brook, just below Brixworth Hill, has ever since gone by the name
' Knightley's Leap.' It was accomplished, we believe, on hi cele-
brated black horse Benvolio ; but he was on his nearly as famous
bay, Sir Marinel, when he led Mr. Gurney, on Sober Robin, over a

1 82

HUNTING.

gate such as a nineteen-stone man has never yet jumped, and
never will again. The Pytchley had a fast thing from a gorse of
the baronet's at Dodford, and ran to the Nen, near Heyford village,
where there is a bridge across the river, and a six-barred locked
gate in the middle of it. They were just running into their fox,

about two hundred yards
ahead, when Sir Charles, and
Mr. Gurney about as far behind
them, reached the gate. Find-
ing it locked, he turned his
horse round and went over it ;
and to his amazement, as he
glanced back, the Norfolk

welter and his horse were in the air. Fortune favoured them,
and although Robin rapped it like thunder with every leg, they
landed safe. ' What do you think of that ? ' was the question put
to Parson Walker, who would not have charged a hurdle for a

1 The horse rapped it like thunder
with every leg.'

THE HORSE. 183

bishopric, at a county table that evening. ' Why, that my friend
Dick has more guts than brains,' was the prompt reply. 1

Buying from a dealer is a difficult matter to treat of. Many
and many a good hunter has been bought in this way, for
not a penny more than he was worth, and many and many
a one will so be bought hereafter, no doubt. Nevertheless, you
must remember that you are buying on the responsibility of one
man's word. The dealer has probably bought this horse in one
of two ways : either at first hand, from out of one of the large
fairs, or from some farmer who has done so, and then kept the
nag by him to grow in wisdom and stature. In either case the
dealer cannot well have much more than faith to go on, for
his estimate of the animal's powers. No doubt he believes
thoroughly every word he tells you : far be it from us to dis-
parage his honesty, and indeed, we consider a horse dealer in
a large and thriving business to be as honest as any tradesman
of his inches, though, no doubt, the atmosphere of the stable
and ' the rattle of the hat ' does exercise an untoward influence
on some men's moral natures. But it is obvious that, whatever
a man may think and honestly believe of the possibilities of a
horse, his belief must have less practical value than the public
estimate formed of a horse that has been ridden in the face of
day, and several hundreds of prying eyes, by a good man to a
good pack of hounds across a good country.

That experienced judge of horseflesh, who wrote under the
name of ' Harry Hieover,' has observed : ' My first, best, and
most strenuous advice to any man wanting horses, not being a
thorough, good, practical judge, yet wishing to keep the money
together, I shall write in large characters NEVER BUY FOR YOUR-
SELF.' 3 To get a friend who has the qualities you lack to put
them at your disposal is, no doubt, much to be recommended
if you can find such a one. To be asked one's opinion is
always flattering in any matter, and especially in the matter of
horseflesh, wherein judgment and shrewdness, the capacity for

> The Post and Paddock, ch, xiii. The Pocket and the Stud.

1 84 HUNTING.

not being done, is by many people supposed to give a stamp of
very superior intelligence indeed. But it does not follow that
the man most ready to give his opinion is the man best quali-
fied to have an opinion worth giving. Perhaps one might,
without much exaggeration, say rather the contrary, for there
are not, we think, many men who have had experience in these
delicate matters who would care a second time to subject them-
selves to the terrible ordeal contained in the seemingly simple
phrase, buying a horse for a friend. For our own part we would far
sooner select a wife for a friend than a horse : at any rate, we
should not be expected to get rid of the former, if haply she did
not suit, as would be nine times out of ten the case in the latter
bargain.

If a man does not dare to rely on his own judgment, and
does not know exactly where to lay his hand on the animal he
wants, and cannot find the friend wise enough and daring
enough to act for him, perhaps he cannot do better than put
himself in the hands of a respectable dealer. After all, to put
the case brutally, it must be most to the latter's interest to treat
his customers fairly. The buyer will of course consider the
limitations above indicated in the event of his being recom-
mended an untried horse. He may possibly do well also to
consider if the horse offered to him has a very shining repu-
tation. Dealers are fallible as well as their customers, and
may, themselves, have been sometimes a little too ready to
listen to the voice of the charmer. One is apt to wonder
' how the devil it got there ' when one finds a horse with very
splendid testimonials in a dealer's stable ; it is not impossible
that the testimonials, true as gospel, as in their day they may
have been, may be found on trial to refer rather to the past
time than to the future. But, when all is said and done, a
man who is quite certain of the sort of animal he wants and
the sort of price he intends to pay simple pieces of knowledge
in which so many buyers are so curiously deficient will
probably not go very far wrong to trust to a good dealer. There
are a fair proportion of them to be found, and some, of course,

THE HORSE. 185

not quite so good. It would obviously be unwise to mention
names, but at least there need be no difficulty even for the
veriest tyro in assuring himself where not to go, and it has been
justly said that 'to know what to avoid, to know where at
least not to go, is perhaps the first step to an advance in the
right direction.' It would be only, we trust, an insult to our
readers' common sense to impress on them that the advertise-
ment columns of the newspapers are not the quarters in which
to look for good horses. Finally, let the buyer remember these
simple facts : that he must not expect to buy a swan at the
price of a goose : that a horse who is a notoriously brilliant
animal in one man's hands is not necessarily the same in
another's : that when he finds he has got a really good animal,
even if it be not gifted with the exceptional properties of Lord
Barrymore's facetious ideal, he will do well to let no offer
tempt him, and no caprice move him, to part with it

iS6 HUNTING.

CHAPTER VII

THE RIDER.

THERE is a story told of a certain highwayman, very famous
and skilful in his profession, who, after a long and successful
career, was at last brought to book.

The charge is prepar'd ; the lawyers are met ;
The judges all rang'd a terrible show !

and, after all due preliminaries, the gallows are reached.
Before the hangman advanced to play his part on the body,
the chaplain was busy, according to custom, with the souL
' Do you repent of your past life ? ' he asked. ' I do,' was the
answer, 'I repent unfeignedly. And yet a gallop across
country by moonlight ! oh, you dog, it was delicious \ '

Delicious, indeed, is a gallop across country under certain
conditions, among which now that the ' Knights of the Road,'
together with many another more reputable fellowship, have

become

Portions and parcels of the dreadful Past

few of us would probably care to place moonlight. To be sure,
such is the good nature and keenness of their master, the
Duke of Rutland's hounds have been known to kill their fox
' on a shiny night,' as the old song says, and once, indeed, if not
more than once, even to find one ; so that it has become a
proverb throughout his country that you are always sure of a
run with the Belvoir, if you will only stop out long enough. A
famous steeplechase, moreover, was once ridden under the

THE RIDER. 187

rule of the ' Sweet Regent of the Sky,' and has received im-
mortality from the hand of Alken. But then the riders were
dashing young dragoons, and that branch of the English service
has ever, as we know, been ready to go anywhere and do any-
thing to say nothing of the very stimulating nature of the
jumping powder supplied by a Cavalry Mess. But we may
fairly assume that, on the whole, we will not say sunlight, as in
this desperate climate of ours too narrowly circumscribing our
possibilities, but daylight, let us say, will be found most favour-
able to feats of equitation.

But delicious as a gallop across country undeniably is to a
good rider on the back of a good horse with, as an enthusiastic
writer has expressed it, ' the best fellows in the world to the
right and left, but never a soul 'twixt yourself and the hounds,'
it is no less capable of affording sensations the very reverse of
delightful. Everyone remembers Leech's picture of the un-
fortunate man going down hill at a slapping pace over ground
studded with mole-hills, on a straight-shouldered ewe-necked
brute ridden in a single snaffle, one foot out of the stirrup, his
hat off, and a dab of mud in his left eye- a combination of
miseries said to have originated in the lively imagination of
'Jem' Mason. The tnstes of men are notoriously various
and surprising ; but it is difficult to imagine any person in
such a situation describing his gallop as delicious. It would
be an interesting subject for discussion in one of those 'sym-
posiums ' which at one time crept into our periodical literature,
the relative amount of pity given to the good man mounted
on a bad horse, and the lad man on a good horse the man
who could make everything of his chances if he had them,
and the man who can make nothing of the chances he
has. To be sure, one has often heard of the man who can
get to the end of the hardest run on a horse which others
have never been able to persuade over a single fence. But
in that case we may be pretty sure that the animal was not
primarily to blame : the possibilities were there, they only
wanted developing. 'I sold you a horse, sir,' said once a

188

HUNTING.

famous rider to a rather indifferent one who was inclined to
grumble at his purchase, ' but I did not sell you the gift of
horsemanship.' On the other hand, a really bad man will never
make anything out of a good horse except, if he be allowed
his wicked will long enough, a bad one \ Perhaps, it would be
safest to say that, in the first case, one pities the man most, in
the second, the horse.

What is a bad man ? We are not about to discuss the ques-
tion from a Sunday-school teacher's point of view, useful as

1 A bad man on a good horse.'

that would in its own way be ; but as in our last chapter we
exposed the various points of badness in a horse, so now we
propose to treat the rider to the same process. So often one
hears the question, ' Is So-and-so a good man across a country?'
and the answer, ' Yes ' or ' No ' as the case may be. Now, if So-
and-so be not a good man, it is clear he must be a bad man.
When so great an authority as Whyte-Melville ' begs emphatically
to disclaim any intention of laying down the law on such a sub-

THE RIDER. 189

ject as horsemanship,' it behoves every writer to be careful. To
tell a man what he ought to do, is one thing ; to teach him how
he ought to do it, is another, and a very different thing. 'Every
man,' says the same master of the game, ' who wears spurs
believes himself more or less an adept in the art of riding.'
For adepts it would obviously be as presumptuous as useless to
write. But to briefly and gently indicate to those who are not
yet adepts the chief points to be avoided, may possibly best
serve to put them in the best road to become such.

There are, of course, various degrees of badness. A rider
is not necessarily a bad man because he is not always in the first
flight, nor need he even merit the epithet if he be never found
there. On the other hand, a ' thrusting scoundrel ' is by no
manner of means to be accepted unreservedly as a good man.
When the ' Spectator ' paid his famous visit to Sir Roger de
Coverley he was so enchanted with a day's hare hunting his
host showed him (our humanitarians will be delighted to hear
that the good knight's ' stop hounds ' were not permitted to kill
their game) that, regardless of Pascal's contempt for men who
could ' throw away so much time and pains on a silly animal
which they might buy cheaper in the market,' he registered the
following resolve : ' For my own part I intend to hunt twice a
week during my stay with Sir Roger ; and shall prescribe the
moderate use of this exercise to all my country friends, as the
best kind of physic for mending a bad constitution and preserv-
ing a good one.' Now the ' Spectator ' by his own confession
was anything but a hard rider. ' My aversion,' he says, ' to leap-
ing hedges made me withdraw to a rising ground, from whence
I could have the pleasure of the whole chase without the fatigue
of keeping in with the hounds.' He made no pretence of riding ;
he went out for his health's sake, and for the novelty of the
diversion, leaving the ' honours ' of the chase to more daring
spirits. No true sportsman would despise such a man, any more
than he would find in his heart much praise for him who gauged
his day's sport by the size of the fences he had jumped and the
number of his friends he had cut down. Hunting is the

190 HUNTING.

amusement and not the business of a gentleman. He is at per-
fect liberty, therefore, to pursue it in the way which pleases him
and suits him best, provided, of course, the gratification of his
own tastes is compatible with the equal liberties of others. If
he like best to ride the roads, or, at most, make his careful way
through an occasional gap, by all means let him do so ; he will
not, perhaps, see very much of the sport, but that, after all, is
nobody's concern but his own. If, on the other hand, it is his
opinion that hunting can yield no amusement deserving the
name to anyone who is not in the same field with the hounds,
again by all means let him get there and keep there if he can.
Of the two classes into which hunting men may be broadly
divided, the men who ride to hunt, and the men who hunt to
ride, it should always be remembered that the sportsman, as
distinguished from the mere hunting man, will be found in
the former. The latter, however, may be further subdivided.
There are those who hunt for the sheer sake of riding hard. In
the list of their amusements fences occupy a much more promi-
nent place than foxes or hounds, and who would regard the fastest
and straightest gallop in the world over the Berkshire or Sussex
downs as great an infliction as a blank day in Leicestershire.
There are those again who, like the good ' Spectator,' make no
account of glory ; who, if they successfully negotiate an accom-
modating sheep hurdle, are inclined with Dogberry ' to give God
thanks, and make no boast of it,' and if hounds will run away
from them, follow the advice of the same sagacious philosopher
and ' let them go.' Such men hunt for the sake of the exer-
cise, the fresh air, the pleasure of meeting their friends, the
diversion from the routine of every-day life. Often enough they
are good sportsmen, too, and if they seldom, perhaps, see a fox
handsomely killed, enjoy as much as anyone to see him hand-
somely found. Every hunt knows one or more of such men ;
men who know the name and pedigree of every hound in the
pack, the line from every covert, the most practicable place in
every fence, the ford to every brook, every gate and every by-
road in the whole country. Often thus, without risking their

THE RIDER. 191

necks more than, if as much as, we do every time we get into a
Hansom cab in the London streets, they will see far more of
the day's fun, and give a far better account of it, than the most
persevering and dauntless of 'bruisers.' Honest, reputable,
and blameless members of the great community of fox hunters,
enjoying themselves without any pretence or parade, jealous of
no man's glory, interfering with no man's sport, they are entitled
at least to our hearty respect if not to our admiration.

But the man who is not entitled to our respect is he who
does make parade and pretence ; who at the covert- side is a
thing of beauty, indeed ; who from the crown of his glossy hat
to the sole of his yet glossier boot is, sartorially speaking,
the ideal man, whole, complete, polished to the finger nail.
Decked with the sweetest and choicest of flowers, soothed
and supported by the largest of cigars, perched on a nag fit to
carry Caesar's fortunes, he is by far the most conspicuous and
splendid object there, till the fox is found, and then becomes
conspicuous only by his absence. Not that dandyism is in-
compatible with the hardest and straightest riding. The
records of the hunting field have proved that over and over
again, and prove it every day, just as in that larger and bloodier
field of which it is the image, the dandies have ever held their
own since that famous day in the pass of Thermopylae when
the Persian looked with awe on the Spartans dressing their
long hair for their last battle. It is the business of every
gentleman to dress himself as well as his means will permit,
and in the fashion which the custom of his day prescribes. A
conspicuous disregard of custom is just as contemptible a form
of affectation as a too slavish adherence to it ; and he who
noisily affects to despise the sumptuary amenities of his time :=
influenced by precisely the same motive as he who carries
their observance to a point beyond the limits of taste and
reason namely, a vulgar affectation of singularity. Brummell
does not seem to have been a very wise man ; but he was wise,
at least, in his own affairs, when he said that the best-dressed
man was the man whose dress attracted least notice. In these

192 HUNTING.

sober-suited days a certain amount of splendour mast neces-
sarily seem to belong to the hunting field, and the dandies of
Melton and Market Harboro' are, no doubt, very great dandies
indeed, as were their fathers before them. But when they can
carry their splendours well to the front for forty minutes from
Ranksboro' Gorse or the Coplow, nor fear to smirch them in the
murky waters of the Whissendine, or the bullfinches of Ashby
Pastures, no one would think of quarrelling with those minute
and various sacrifices to the graces which your true hunting
dandy would as soon think of omitting as he \\ould of turning
aside from a nasty place for fear of soiling their beauty. It is
only when those splendours are seen jogging along lanes, or
waiting their turn at gates and gaps, that they have the effect
of making their wearer ridiculous. In the hunting field, as
everywhere else, a humbug is a bad man. If your style of riding
be quiet, it is well that your appearance should be ' in concate-
nation accordingly.'

No man, then, deserves to be ridiculed or despised because
he has not the courage and the skill necessary to enable him
to ride close and straight to hounds when they are really
running over a strongly fenced country, provided always that
he is careful not to assume the virtue that he has not. It is
clear that if it were to be regarded as a canon law of hunting
that no man should make his appearance at the covert side
unless he be prepared to follow the fortunes of the pack to
the bitter end, like the lover in Moore's poem,

Through joy and through torment, through glory and shame,

a great number of honest souls would be arbitrarily deprived of
an innocent and healthful amusement. Nay, it will often
happen that a man who can ride, and does when the fit is on
him, for some reason or other disinclination, ill-health, a dis-
appointment in the stable, or any of those thousand and one
ills to which fox-hunting flesh is heir- -will for the nonce content
himself with the part of spectator from the back of some safe
and quiet hack, or possibly even on wheels. Such a one will,

THE RIDER. 193

of course, know well how to behave himself in such circum-
stances, but for the benefit of the less initiated, the more uni-
formly unambitious, a few simple rules may not be out of place.
The first advice we should be inclined to give to a stranger
in the land would be follow a leader advice, we may observe
in passing, which holds good alike for those who intend ' going '
as for those who do not. However experienced in the art of
road-riding a man may be and an art be assured it is how-
ever keen may be his eye for a country, it is tolerably clear
that if he has never been in that country and along those roads
before, there is likely to be disappointment somewhere before
the day is over. So long as the disappointment is individual
only it is of no particular moment save to the individual.
But he who trcts along strange roads in pursuit of his own
nose, knowing not where he is going, or, more important still,
where the fox is likely to be going, may not at all improbably
find himself sooner or later in the unenviable position of ' the
man who has headed the fox' words which may hardly even
be written without a sense of unutterable misery and shame.
Even when by some untoward train of circumstances beyond
the best sportsman's control he finds himself in this humiliating
position he must expect scant mercy or justice. But when he
rides into it along a line of roads, when, in short, he has spoiled
other people's sport, as he will probably be told, because he
dare not share in it himself, then his case is desperate indeed.
' Hanging,' as that eloquent nobleman Lord Scamperdale once
observed, 'is too good for him.' But we have said enough : it
is, indeed, a situation

To be dreamed of, not to tell.

The unaspiring adherent to Macadam will do well, then, to
provide himself with a leader, and he need never be at a loss to
find one. Every hunt has one or more skilful and well-trusted
pilots, who will be able to show him all the sport possible on
such conditions, without risking his own neck, or spoiling the
fun of others. Should he, however, by some mischance find

o

194 HUNTING.

himself left to his own guidance, remember this : always to keep
well down wind, to have his eyes well in front of him, and his
ears well open, whereby he will not only avoid any too sudden
intrusion on the line, but may even prove of some use at a
critical moment to his more daring neighbours :

He who has watched, not shared the fight,
Knows how the day has gone.

And it is very possible that the judicious roadster may be able
on occasions to tell the huntsman a little more about his fox
than that functionary is always in a position himself to know.
Finally and this for his own especial comfort and safety
let him remember that, as has been pertinently observed,
the man who never jumps at all can by no possibility be
' pounded,' and let him never enter a field without being as
certain of his egress as of his ingress. In the hunting field, as
elsewhere, half measures will always prove fatal in the long run.
If he means 'going,' let him 'go;' if he means riding the
roads, let him ride them. Not to every man falls the luck
that fell to Mr. Sawyer on the memorable day he rode Marathon
to sell. But to turn to the riders.

Egerton Warburton has, with his usual dexterity, hit off the
ideal of a ' good man to "hounds : '

Give me the man to whom nought comes amiss,
One horse or another, that country or this ;
Who through falls or bad starts undauntedly still
Rides up to the motto, be with them I will.

It might be broadly said that the opposite of this ideal would
be a good definition of a bad man. The man who never gets
a start, who is always falling, who can only go well on a par-
ticular sort of horse, over a particular sort of country, on a
particular sort of day one could hardly with truth speak of
such a one as a ' good man to hounds,' however forward he
might show when all his necessary conditions were granted.
But lower still in the scale, and far lower, comes the man of
excuses ; he who has an explanation for every contingency., a

THE RIDER. 195

reason why for every mishap. Now his ' confounded fellow '
has given him the wrong bridle, now the wrong saddle ; this
time his stirrups are too short, that time his curb chain was
too tight the lineal descendant of Captain Guano, that dis-
tinguished follower of the ' Mangeysterne ' hounds, may be
met with to-day in every county of England. Sometimes a
hound crosses him at a critical moment ; sometimes his good
nature prevails, and he forfeits his place, if not his day's sport,
to help a friend ; at others, just at that precious moment when
the crowd have been choked off, and the real good ones have
settled to their work, he loses a shoe. Of this favourite device
to conceal the failings either of horse or rider, an amusing
story is told. During a very fast and straight gallop in
Leicestershire a rider was observed walking his horse leisurely
down a field towards a stiff fence, holding a shoe in his hand.
' What's the matter ? ' hailed a passing friend, ' why don't you
screw him at it ? ' A sorrowful shake of the head, with a demon-
stration of the shoe, was the only answer. ' Why, my good
fellow,' observed a too curious third party, ' your horse has got
four shoes on \ ' In short, with men of these delicate suscepti-
bilities, everybody and everything is to blame except their own
want of pluck, decision, or skill.

No doubt the first essential to a good rider to hounds is
courage. True, courage alone will not make one, but without
courage, it may be said that all other qualities, the finest hands,
the firmest seat, the surest judgment, are of no avail. Now,
courage is of two sorts, moral and physical, and of these the
first, in the hunting field as every \vhere else, is the rarest.
The man who has not the latter in sufficient quantity to enable
him to make his way over a stiffly fenced country, may possibly
have enough of the former to confess his weakness. From
such we withhold our contempt ; though perhaps not our pity.
But for one of these you will probably find twenty of those.
How often, too, one hears it said of a young and inexperienced
rider : ' So-and-so goes like a fool, who doesn't know his
danger ; wait till he has had a real bad fall, and see how he

O 2

196 HUNTING.

will go then.' The saying is ill-natured, no doubt, and often
enough contradicted by subsequent facts ; nevertheless it has a
spice of truth in it. These two sorts of courage, the courage
of sheer ignorance, rashness or foolhardiness, if you like to call
it so, and the courage of judgment, which is the true courage,
are very fairly distinguished by the following story. On the
morning of that famous October day in Balaclava valley, after
the splendid charge of our heavy cavalry had broken and
scattered to the winds more than twice their number of Russian
horse, while our Light Brigade were waiting the fatal order
which poor Nolan was to bring them, two grim war-worn
veterans, as they sat on their horses in the ranks waiting for the
next move, were watching a young trooper near them tickling
his comrade's horse to make it kick. ' Look at Bill,' said one
of them admiringly, ' ain't he a rare good plucked one ? ' ' Not
a bit of it,' was the answer, ' he's only a fool ; he don't know his
danger. Now you and I, mate, have been at this game before.
We do know our danger, and cursedly afraid of it we are. But
we can't run away, and we wouldn't if we could. We're the real
good plucked ones.' It is probable that the young rider whose
heart is really in the right place will in time acquire this better
sort of courage, and that one or two rattling falls, instead of
destroying his pluck, will improve it into that still more valuable
and rarer quality we call nerve ; and thus will he develop into the
first-rate performer who, thoroughly conscious of all the hazards
he runs, is determined to shirk none of them that are necessary,
but who, by experience and judgment, has learned how far they
may be minimised, and is equally determined to throw no one
of his lessons away.

Nerve and pluck are two distinct qualities, though both
belong to the genus courage. Whyte-Melville very well sepa-
rates them when he says, ' The latter takes us into a difficulty,
the former brings us out of it ; ' and he goes on more minutely
to define them thus : ' I conceive the first to be a moral
quality, the result of education, sentiment, self-respect, and
certain high aspirations of the intellect ; the second a gift of

THE RIDER. 197

nature dependent upon the health, the circulation, and the
liver. As memory to imagination in the student, so is nerve to
pluck in the horseman. Not the more brilliant quality, nor the
more captivating, but sound, lasting, available for all emer-
gencies, and sure to conquer in the long run.' Probably no
man ever rode to hounds who united these two qualities in
a more striking degree than Assheton Smith, and his three
favourite maxims were : Throw your heart over and your horse is
sure to f allow ; there is no place that you can't get over with a fall ;
and no man can be called a good rider till he knows how to fall.

Of the first and last of these maxims the truth is indisput-
able, and so, in a sense, is it with the second. No man,
whatever may be the country he hunts in, can make up his
mind to really see where hounds go and what they are doing,
without taking falls into account. He must be prepared for
them, and he will have them. Nevertheless the tyro will do
well to remember that his primary business in the hunting field
is to get over his fences without falls ; that the first and most
obvious motive of the parcnership between horse and rider is
that it should be firm and lasting, not frail and intermittent.
While, therefore, taking all possible contingencies into account,
his first care should be to so manage matters that he and his
companion may encompass their fences together and not sepa-
rately. There was no spice of bravado in Assheton Smith's
saying ; neither, doing what he did, can he be held to have
fallen unnecessarily. Whether he was hunting the hounds
himself or not, his one fixed, unalterable resolve was always to
go into the same field with them. Nor did he, as did most of
his straight-going contemporaries, ride finished hunters, or as a
rule give long prices. Some of his best nags were notoriously
such as many men, and good riders too, could have done
nothing with ; some, indeed, are said to have been such as few
men would even have cared to mount. ' He entertained,' it has
been said, ' no fancies as to size, action, above all peculiarities
in mouths and tempers. Little or big, sulky, violent, or restive,
if a horse could gallop and jump, he was a hunter the moment

198 HUNTING.

he found himself between the legs of Tom Smith.' Certainly
no man ever put his theories into practice more zealously or
more successfully than he. For nearly fifty years of his life he
had been a master of hounds. When close upon his eightieth
year, old Tom Wingfield, who had been with him when he
hunted the Quorn, asked him whether he could manage ' them
there big places ' as well as he did ' in old Jack O'Lantern's
days,' and he could honestly answer, ' I hear no complaints, and
I believe my nerve is as good as ever.' Only two years before
he died he had no less than three falls in one day, and was
none the worse for them ! It has been computed that in the
heyday of his fame his average of falls was from sixty to seventy
a season, and he was never hurt but once ! His light weight,
his iron constitution, and temperate habits, served him well, of
course ; it may be admitted, too, that he was an exceptionally
lucky man. But his cool head, unshaken nerve, and thorough
knowledge of horses, had really enabled him, as one may say, to
reduce the art of falling to a science, though it would have
been difficult probably, for him or anybody, to formulate its
precepts in words. One of his favourite rules was, when he
fancied a fall was likely, always to put his horse at the fence
aslant, so that, if his fancy was proved fact, the animal might
keep at least one leg free, and fall on its side clear of its rider.
Another famous follower of this rule was Mr. Greene, the
Squire of Rolleston,- who in his youth had sat at the feet of
Mr. Smith. There are two other golden rules that the young
rider will do well to bear also in mind : never to part company
with your horse till the last moment, and never to leave go of the
reins.

Granted, then, that the rider has this primal gift of courage,
and that he possesses both its component parts of pluck and
nerve, or, as they may be now elegantly called, valour and dis-
cretion, there remain to make him really a good man, seat,
hands, judgment. The combination of all three in their proper
degrees results in a perfect horseman.

Of all these essentials the seat is the only one that can

THE RIDER.

199

really be taught, and to learn it there is, perhaps, no better plan
than to practise riding without stirrups. We are supposing, of
course, that the preliminary education that most English boys
receive either from their father or the family coachman has
not been neglected. In all athletic sports the child must be
father to the man. Without some experience at least in boy-
hood, no man is ever likely to attain much proficiency in the

' Never part company till the last moment.'

saddle, at any rate in the hunting saddle. But teaching, even
in this matter, is only of avail up to a certain point, and after
the young rider has mastered his alphabet, so to speak, he must
do the rest pretty much for himself.

To some men a good seat comes, as it were, naturally ; to
others, on the contrary, it may be said to come with great
difficulty; a graceful seat perhaps never. Short legs and round
thighs are certainly terrible impediments either to a firm or a

200 HUNTING.

graceful seat ; they tend to produce that most unlovely and
unsafe appearance styled by Sir Bellingham Graham a ' wash-
ball seat.' Still, even with these drawbacks, a man may
learn how to sit in his saddle with comfort to himself and his
horse (the one, as Mr. Jorrocks shrewdly observes, being 'in
all humane probability ' identical with the other), though he
may not wholly satisfy a lady's eye for the picturesque, if only
he will set about it in the right way. It is probable that the
Athenians were not as eminent in horsemanship as in most
other accomplishments ; but no one can go into that room in
the British Museum where the spoils of the Parthenon are
stored without seeing at a glance that they knew well what a
good seat on horseback should be. The riders in the famous
Frieze bestride their steeds bare-backed and without stirrups,
but they are one and all sitting precisely in the right place, that
is to say, in the very centre of the saddle, did a saddle form part
of their equipment. The weight of the body is thus thrown on
that part of the horse's spine, immediately behind the withers,
which is most capable of sustaining it. Starting from this
point the most inexperienced rider will be surprised to find
how easily his body adapts itself to the motions of the horse ;
starting from any other he will probably, and really not un-
naturally, jump to the conclusion that he has been cursed by
fortune with an animal of abnormally -rough and unsympathetic
paces, the one horse in the world that 'no fellow could sit.'

But a seat, to be a really good one, should be firm, as well
as graceful, should be good to wear as well as to look at.
Above the waist the body should be light, supple, giving and
taking with every movement of the horse ; below it should be
strong as iron, and as unyielding. The distinction between
riding by grip and riding by balance, on which a good deal
of talk is sometimes expended, is a foolish one. ' As well,'
observes Whyte-Melville, ' might a man say he played the
fiddle by finger or by ear} To insure a good seat there must
be both, and each in its proper proportion ; balance above the
saddle, grip below it ; indeed, it is practically impossible to

THE RIDER. 201

really secure the one without the other, as any man may prove
foi himself : the proper balance of the upper limbs can only be
preserved by the firmness of the lower. One often hears of a
resolute rider holding a shifty horse in such a grasp that, with
the worst intentions in the world, refusal is quite out of the
question. Now, this grasp is quite as much a matter of the
legs as the hands, and a horse is quite as quick to understand
and appreciate the meaning of the former as of the latter.
The good Mr. Greene, whose hand and seat were so light as to
have won him the nickname of ' the Fly,' always struck people
as intimating his will to his horse more by knee-pressure than
anything else. Most horses, it should be remembered, will gauge
the quality of their riders in a much shorter time than the gene-
rality of riders will gauge the quality of animals beneath them.
A story is told of the wonderful sympathy Assheton Smith always
contrived to establish between his horse and himself, which shows
by what slight means this mutual understanding, when once
established, can be maintained. He had mounted a friend
upon one of the best horses then in his stable, Cicero by name.
Hounds were running fast over the grass, and, as usual, Smith
was at their stern, with his friend at his side. Before them
stretched a most uncompromising flight of rails, which Smith
saw was not much to the taste of his friend, and was likely,
therefore, to prove equally distasteful to Cicero. As they
neared the obstacle Smith removed the irresolution at any rate
of the horse by the exclamation, ' Come up, Cicero,' and the
moment that well-known voice was heard, all thought of refusal
passed out of Cicero's head. The rails were cleared ; but, as
Cicero's rider was not quite so susceptible of sympathy, they
were cleared, as one may say, in detachments, though luckily
with no worse effect to the biped than a roll on the grass. A
horse who has had any experience of humanity, as soon as his
rider has settled himself on the saddle, will generally form a
pretty shrewd opinion of that rider's intentions ; and the way
the human legs are placed against his flanks will help him to
that opinion as much as anything else.

202 HUNTING.

The ease and security of the seat, as well as its appearance,
will depend much on the length of the stirrups ; and that will,
in its turn, depend much on the conformity both of the ridec
and the horse. A man who has to contend against these
natural obstacles to horsemanship, which we have already
indicated, will have to ride in shorter stirrups than one more
suitably formed for the saddle. On a horse rather low in the
withers, and very strong in the quarters, shorter stirrups, too, will
be found necessary, however the man may be formed. It
may be taken as a good general rule for the majority of men
on the majority of horses, that that length of the stirrup
leathers will be found at once the most comfortable, and
affording the firmest hold, which raises a man clear of his
horse's withers when he stands up in his stirrups with his feet
home.

It will be hardly needful to expatiate on the inflections of
the body necessary to preserve the equilibrium while the horse
is in the act of leaping. The mere instinct of self-preservation
which is native in every breast would be sufficient to teach this
primary lesson, which indeed is generally learnt on the rider's
first mount, the nursery rocking horse ; though, to be sure, one
sometimes sees it strangely forgotten in the hunting field. It
may, however, be worth while to remark that here again the
movement of the body should be mainly from the hips upwards.
Down thence to the knee the legs should retain their original
position, but from the knee, as the horse descends, they should
be inclined slightly backwards. This, too, may seem a simple
rule enough, almost an inevitable one ; but, as a matter of fact,
one often sees it violated, not only in the field, but often in
books, and most often in the illustrations to books. If the feet
be thrust forward, so that the whole leg be in a direct line from
the hip downwards, the shock when the horse lands, especially
over a drop fence or on hard ground, will be so violent, that the
rider, if he does not actually lose it, will at least find some
difficulty in keeping his seat, besides running the risk, if the
fence be a high one, of strain or rupture. No man, if he leaps

THE RIDER. 203

a fence on his own feet, comes to the ground with his legs in a
stiff unyielding line at any rate, if he does so once, he will
take good care not to do so again ; and the principle of ' give
and take ' holds equally good on horseback. We were lately
turning over the pages of the ' Life of AnotherTom Smith,' l and
came across a case in point. When this gentleman was hunt-
ing the Craven country, he came one day to the wall of Elcot
Park, six feet two inches in height. The hounds made their
way through the holes left at the bottom for game to pass, and
the field made for a door. Mr. Smith, however, rode at the
wall. The first time his horse refused, but the second time
they cleared the desperate leap. On reaching the ground on
the other side, however, the horse's fore-legs gave way, and he
came down on his chest, his rider's feet being dashed with such
violence against the ground that when the rest of the field came
round through the door they found him unconscious, and it was
three weeks before he could get again into the saddle. This
story is accompanied by an illustration from the pencil of the
adventurous sportsman, and from his attitude in the saddle, the
body thrown very far back and the legs thrust very far forward,
the chief wonder of the reader must be that Mr. Smith was not
very much more seriously injured than he was.

Nor can the young rider be cautioned too much against
that still so common practice of raising the whip-hand in the air
while taking a fence. It not only prevents him from giving
that support to his horse that may be necessary on landing, but
it also throws the body off its balance, and, as a necessary con-
sequence, tends to destroy the balance of the horse as well. It
is really a more evil practice than that other one, which is
occasionally seen, of grasping the cantle of the saddle. If any
support is needed, placing one hand on the pummel of the saddle
as the horse descends is far better than ' catching hold behind.'
This in the case of old and heavy riders, when ' creeping ' a drop
fence, may occasionally be condoned, though hardly recom-

1 Sporting Incidents in the Life of Another Tom Smith. This is the
Mr. Smith to whose Diary of a Huntsman there is an allusion in ch. iv.

204 HUNTING.

mended ; but the other, never. In nearly all the old hunting
pictures, the riders will be seen not only taking their fences
with their whip-hands high in air, but going at them in the same
attitude, and no matter what the description of fence, always at
the same headlong pace. Like the horsemen in Macaulay's
poem who carried inland the news of the coming of the Spanish
Armada, these fiery riders are seen on the canvases of Ferneley
and Alken charging over the Leicestershire pastures ' with loose
rein and bloody spur,' as though each one had in his pocket
any number of spare necks both for himself and his horse. It
adds to the picturesqueness of the scene, no doubt, it may also
make the unskilful ' wonder with a foolish face of praise ; ' but
it will certainly make the ' judicious grieve.' And if this were
really the style of riding popular among those mighty men of
old, the tales of their prowess must certainly lose a little of their
currency. Remembering, however, Assheton Smith's saying,
' Whenever you see a man going a hundred miles an hour at his
fences, depend upon it that man funks,' one may fairly suppose
that the fault lay with the painters and not with their subjects.
To write of hands and judgment is indeed a difficult matter.
One may write of them, of course, for ever and ever, but how
little ' forwarder ' will mere writing get our young friend ! When
Izaak Walton sat down to pen his ' Pleasant Curiosity of Fish
and Fishing,' he first took care, like the wise man he was, to
guard himself about with the following precaution or ' letter of
advice ' to his readers : ' Now for the Art of catching fish ; that
is to say, how to make the man that was none to be an Angler
by a book, he that undertakes it shall undertake a harder task
than Mr. Hales, a most valiant and excellent fencer, who in a
printed book called a " Private School of Defence " undertook
to teach that art or science, and was laughed at for his labour ;
not but that many useful things might be learned by that book,
but he was laughed at because that Art was not to be taught by
words, but practice ; and so must Angling.' And so, with
even more confidence may we say, must Riding. Of all the
many and intricate branches of the sport of hunting, there is

THE RIDER. 205

none in which the old rule of the relative value of an ounce
of practice and a ton of theory holds so good as in that comprised
under the head of Riding to Hounds, and of this particular
department, again, incomparably the most difficult to treat of
is that known as Hand. One might say of it, indeed, as
Mr. Matthew Arnold has said of the 'Grand Style:' it cannot
be analysed or defined ; it can only be spiritually discerned.

It is, perhaps, too much to say that the gift of hands, like
1 reading and writing,' comes by nature ; but it is certainly a gift
that some men can never acquire, with all the experience in
the world. Again, though one can hardly say that a rider
blessed with a good nerve will also have good hands, it is
pretty nearly certain that without the former the latter will
not be found, or, at least will be found wanting when most
necessary. Nerve and presence of mind are synonymous
terms, and presence of mind is that quality which shows a man
at a glance exactly what to do or, at any rate, what not to do, at
the critical moment. Consequently an experienced rider with
presence of mind and pluck (and the one can hardly exist with-
out the other) will generally be found to have pretty good hands,
a good seat being of course understood. At least, if he is not
able to perform those wonderful feats with a horse's mouth such
as the late Lords Gardner and Wilton, for example, were famous
for, he will abstain from vexing, distressing, or flurrying his horse.
If he cannot always do the one thing needful at the proper
moment, he will do none of those many things that are not only
never needful at any moment, but absolutely fatal at all moments.

About as good a piece of general advice as could be given
on this score to the young rider, if he be riding a trained hunter,
whom he knows, and who knows him, would be to leave him
alone. Keep him 'in hand;' keep your hold of the bridle, and
let the horse feel you have hold of it ; the best and cleverest
of hunters will want support at times. Moreover, as he is not
gifted with the spirit of prophecy (though it is wonderful how
near his instinct often approaches thereto), it is impossible for
him to be quite certain what waits for him and you on the

206 HUNTING.

other side. 1 Your point of vision is higher than his, and
often the uncertainty becomes to you a certainty sooner than
it does to him. You must be prepared therefore to stop him
almost in the last stride if necessary, or at any rate to turn
him, and this no man can do, however fine the mouth he has to
deal with, however strong his own grasp, if he rides at his fences
in that loose-reined fly-away fashion our elder painters were so
fond of depicting. But supposing both rider and horse are
willing to go, and the latter has proved his ability, then let the
former leave him alone. A wise old rider was wont to say,
' People talk about size and shape, shoulders, quarters, blood,
bone and muscle, but for my part give me a hunter with brains.
He has to take care of the biggest fool of the two, and think for
both !' A young rider will do well to bear this saying in mind,
and believe that his horse knows more about the business than
he does. Many of us have seen wonderful feats wrought in the
hunting field by human hands, more of us have read of them :
horses all fire and fury made handy as poodles, sure-footed as
cats, creeping up and down banks, squeezing between trees, and
tripping in and out between doubles, crawling here, flying there,
turned on half-a-crown, as the saying goes, managed almost like
horses in a circus. Such things can be done, are done every
day ; but such things, Oh young rider, you were best to believe
as yet ' are not for thee.'

If your horse be well-fed, and in blooming condition,
Well up to the country and up to your weight ;
O, then give the reins to your youthful ambition,
Sit down in the saddle and keep his head straight.

1 A remarkable instance of this prophetic instinct is thus given by ' The
Druid.' 'As regards leaping, one of the cleverest things we remember was
done some years since by a Belzoni-bred hunter who had never been known to
refuse a fence before. A lad of about fifteen was riding him as straight as an
arrow to hounds, and put him at an apparently easy bank and rails, when he
suddenly closed up in his stride about twenty yards from it, and refused to face
it. On examination there proved to be an old stone quarry on the other side ;
the lad thought it a good joke, but the horse lost all his jumping nerve from
that hour.' The Post and tlie Paddock, ch. xiii

THE R1DEX. 207

While ambition is still youthful, it had best, perhaps, be
satisfied with the result of the conditions framed in these lines,
remembering only not to give the reins too literally.

How often we hear a woman praised for her hands ; how
often hear it said that the gentler sex have naturally better
hands than we men. Partly, no doubt, this is because they are
the ' gentler sex,' because they have not the strength to pull and
haul a horse about that we, alas ! have. But mainly it comes
from this, that they are content to leave their horses alone.
Mounted, as they mostly are, and certainly always should be, on
thoroughly trained and experienced hunters, they are satisfied
to leave everything to the horse ; it is his business to carry
them, theirs to be carried. Whether this happy state of confi-
dence arises from their superior tact, or from ignorance, matters
nothing. The result remains, that a woman, however straight
she goes, is much more rarely seen in difficulties than a man.
To Diana we shall not presume to offer any advice, the more so
because more than one of her own sex has already written on
this score ; and when a woman is competent to instruct her
own kind, on this or any other subject, she will naturally know
much better what to say and how to say it than a man can.

There remains then, judgment, and of this what can be
said ? Whatever else may come by nature this must come by
experience. Nor by experience alone. ' Reading,' once wrote
a great man to his son, 'and much reading is good ; but the
power of diversifying the matter infinitely in your mind, and
of applying it to every occasion that arises, is far better.'
Following hounds across a country through a lifetime will do
you little good if you do not keep your eyes open, do not
observe what other men and horses are doing, what the
hounds are doing, ay, and what the fox, too, is doing. By
what secret does that man, who you can see is not so well
mounted as yourself, invariably manage to beat you ? How is
it that he never seems to be going half the pace that you are
conscious of, that he always seems to have the weakest and
smallest place in the fence before him, the soundest ground to

208 HUNTING.

gallop on ? How is it that he always seems to anticipate every turn
of the hounds ? How is it that, no matter how deep the country,
how hot the pace, how big and how frequent the fences, yet at
the end of the run, which he invariably manages to reach be-
fore you, his nag is in so much better plight than yours ? than
yours which has all the blood of all the equine Howards in its
veins, and is as well lodged and as well cared for almost as one
of 'Ouida's' dandy guardsmen. It is judgment that does it all.
The man with a head on his shoulders will always get the best
of it here in the hunting field as elsewhere 'in among the
throngs of men.' Some of us perhaps still remember with
grateful feelings poor Mayne-Reid's enchanting romances, as we
used to think them once upon a time. One of the most start-
ling of them, 'The Headless Horseman,' introduced the hero to
us with some such words as these : ' Something is wanting to
this solitary rider. What can it be ? Good heavens ! it is the
head.' That is precisely the something wanting to so many of
our horsemen, and the something that must be got by everyone
who aspires to be ranked among his fellows as a really ' good
man to hounds.'

But how to get it ? asks the impatient youth. Can no one
teach it me ? Is nothing then to be learned from books ? Have
all these wise men, from old Markham to Why te- Melville,
written in vain ? Far be it from us to say so. Many admirable
lessons are there contained in these books, inspired by the full-
ness of knowledge and of the heart, lessons wherefrom he who
is ' to the manner born ' may no doubt learn much. The rider
who is also a reader, and blessed with a good memory, should
he ever find himself in a situation precisely similar to one he
remembers to have been treated of in his books, may then put
his precepts into practice, and no doubt prosper greatly. But
the difficulty is that in hard fact situations are so very rarely
precisely similar to those one reads of in books. A professor of
mathematics at Oxford once discovered a system by which the
hazard of betting could be reduced to a certainty ; a mathe-
matical certainty, for he did not profess to have proved his

THE RIDER. 209

system by practice. Like a generous man he gave his dis-
covery to the public, and the public, of course, were very much
interested in it. One by one he answered all objections, till
the unknowing ones began to think that here at last was really
the philosopher's stone. But one fine day a knowing one
stepped in and demolished his El Dorado with a word, show-
ing that if on every race every bookmaker was prepared at any
moment to give or take on every horse precisely the odds, no
more and no less, you wished to take or give, then your system
would be infallible, but not till then.

Now it is pretty much the same with verbal lessons on
riding. If at any particular crisis all the circumstances exactly
tally with those your teacher has selected for the purpose of his
lesson, well and good. If you have read with understanding,
and your memory be good, as we have already said, you may
come triumphantly through the difficulty. But how rarely will
that happen ! Take a single instance. We all know that we
should ride fast at water and slow at timber. Theoretically the
advice is excellent ; no advice could be more so. But can any
rider of experience say honestly that he has not often been
obliged to throw it to the wind ? Some horses must be ridden

o

quickly at all their fences ; some horses must be ridden slowly.
A first-rate rider used to say that he not only rode every horse
differently, but he rode the same horse differently at every
fence. Whyte-Melville, who records this saying, explains it
thus : ' He had his system of course, like every other master of
the art, but it admitted of endless variations according to cir-
cumstances and the exigencies of the case.' Elsewhere he gives
instances from his own personal observation of the various ways
good riders put their horses at timber. ' Lord Wilton ' (he was
writing in 1878) ' seems to me to ride at timber a turn slower
than usual, Lord Grey a turn faster. Whether father and son
differ in theory I am unable to say, I can only affirm that they
both are undeniable in practice. Mr. Fellowes, of Shottisham,
perhaps the best of his day, and Mr. Gilmour, facile princeps,
almost walk up to this kind of leap ; Colonel, now General

p

Sia HUNTING.

Pearson, known for so many seasons as the " flying Captain,"
charges it like a squadron of Sikh Cavalry ; Captain Arthur
Smith pulls back to a trot ; Lord Carrington scarcely shortens
the stride of his gallop. Who shall decide between such pro-
fessors ? ' Who, indeed ? Much depends on circumstances, more
perhaps on horses. That is about the sum-total of all that can
be said, and the best man is he who can best adapt his horse to
the circumstances, or, if haply he get the chance, the circum-
stances to his horse.

Take your own Ihte, and keep //, is a piece of advice one
often hears airily given to young riders, more often, perhaps,
reads it. Like much other advice, it presupposes conditions
under which the young rider, at any rate, is not often able to
work. It presupposes, in the first place, an intimate knowledge
of the country he is riding over. Now young riders mostly
hunt from home, as the saying goes which is, indeed, by far
the most agreeable and rational form of enjoying the sport for
all riders ; and we may therefore suppose that he has some, if
only a vague, idea of the lie of the ground and the nature of the
fences. But in the summer the country looks very different
from what it does in the winter. Rambling about it leisurely,
when Nature has ' hung her mantle green ' on every copse and
hedgerow, one gets but a very poor idea of its characteristics
and qualities as they present themselves from the back of a
galloping horse. It is under the first of these aspects that our
young friend is probably most familiar with the country in which
he lives, and well as he may think he knows it in such guise, he
will be astonished to find how much in the dark he really is
when he comes to steer a horse across it when hounds are
running. Some men, indeed, seem to be born with ' an eye to
a country,' as the saying goes, which, with practice, develops
almost into a sort of instinct, or spirit of prophecy ; so much
so that were they to be dropped, ready mounted, booted,
and spurred, into almost any field in England through which
hounds were running, they would incontinently find the best and
quickest way out of it. Some such men are generally to be

THE RIDER.

211

found in every hunt, and the tyro will hardly do better than
take such a one for his guide. But let him remember to give
his pilot plenty of room. At fifty yards' distance he can see
perfectly well what his leader is doing, and any nearer he runs
the risk of jumping on him should any mishap occur on the
other side of the fence, or of galloping into him should one
occur on this than which, to say nothing of the danger,

'Give your pilot plenty of room.'

nothing can be more unworthy of the name and character of a
sportsman. Should he determine, however, to shift for him-
self, wherever he may choose his own line, it must never be
that of the hounds ; he must never, that is to say, ride
exactly in their wake, but a little either to the right or the
left. Nothing makes hounds so wild as being conscious of
horses galloping in their track. With all his fire and dash

212 HUNTING.

the foxhound is really a timid animal, and finding a crowd
of horses pressing on him, his sole idea will be to get away
from them as fast and as far as he can without troubling his head
much about the fox. The rider will of course choose his place,
left or right, as the way of the Avind may determine ; for a fox
will naturally as a rule run down wind, though not always. It
is impossible to determine with any certainty which way a
hunted animal will go ; and it will often happen that without
any apparent reason, a fox will set his nose straight against the
stiffest breeze. He will rarely, however, keep this course for
long ; and in nine cases out of ten you will generally find
yourself in the right place by keeping to leeward of the pack
If the day be a still and clear one, no rule can be laid down.
Here only experience, and that instinct we have spoken of will
avail ; and if you have not them yourself, you must trust your-
self to the guidance of those who have.

When the ploughs are wet, choose always the furrow where
the water lies, for there the ground will be hardest. Look out
for rushes, where the grass shows indications of a swamp.
Take ridge-and- furrow on the slant, where you cannot keep to
the furrow. When riding at a brook, of which you know
nothing, choose always the neighbourhood of a tree or bush,
for there the bank will be firmest ; but if there be no growth
of any kind on its edges, and nothing or nobody to guide you,
cross where the hounds cross they follow the fox, and the fox
naturally crosses at the narrowest point. Remember, too,
that, though hounds go away fast, and you must go fast if you
want to get away, with them, when once they and you have
settled to your work, a run is never over till it is finished. Take
every care of your horse, then, that is compatible with keeping
your place. Pull him back to a trot whenever you can safely
do so. Jump a small fence in preference to a large one, if you
have the preference. Rid him of your weight whenever you
can safely do so. However light you may ride, to him you
can be light only by comparison. Even nine or ten stone is no
joke to carry for nine or ten miles. Never holloa when you

THE RIDER. 213

view a fox, till you are quite certain it is the fox, and even then
it will do no harm ' to count twenty,' like Mr. Jorrocks, before
you ejaculate. Even when hounds are at fault, to get their heads
up is so much easier than to get them down again ; and they,
remember, are even more excited than you are. These are
simple rules, within the compass of everyone's observance ;
but they are as sound as they are simple.

Whyte-Melville in his ' Riding Recollections ' has devoted
a chapter to the abuse of the spur, and he quotes the very high
authority of George Fordham on his side. That admirable race
rider, he says, ' wholly repudiates the tormentors,' arguing that
they only make a horse shorten his stride, and 'shut up,' to use
an expressive term, instead of struggling gallantly home. No
doubt spurs are capable of abuse like everything else, whether
it be an instrument of pleasure or pain. No doubt, too, a very
young rider had better be allowed to chide his steed with an
unarmed heel, especially if he propose to arm it with those
monstrous lances the young Nimrods of the day delight to equip
themselves with. But spurs unquestionably have their use. With
a sulky or an ill-tempered horse, sometimes even with a timid
one, they are often most effectual. They have, moreover, two
advantages over the whip : firstly, they can be used without
diminishing the strength of your grasp on the rein ; secondly,
they can be used without giving the horse any warning of your
intentions, while the mere act of taking up the whip will often
change a dubious refusal into a certain one. Still they should
always be used sparingly. The rowels of hunting spurs as
now worn are no puny weapons, and with a generous horse the
slightest touch of the sharp steel should be sufficient. Horses-
as a rule, want control rather than coercion in the hunting field.
But every rule has its exception, and even the freest and
boldest horse will, like Homer, sometimes nod. When a stimluus
is to be applied, or punishment inflicted, those means are the
best which do their work quickest and with least display. In
both these points the spur is supreme. Whyte-Melville hints
that there is danger, in the case of a fall, of the buckle of the

214 HUNTING.

spur catching in the stirrup, and says that he ' cannot remember
a single instance of a man's foot remaining fixed in the iron
who was riding without spurs.' As a matter of fact we do hap-
pen to remember such an instance an instance in which we
ourselves unfortunately played a particular part ! Yet this never
suggested to us the propriety of riding without stirrups. On
the whole, this problematical danger is, we submit, more than
balanced by the manifest advantages to be got from what its
opponent allows at any rate to give a finished look to a well-
made top-boot. But let the tyro be careful to bear this in mind :
that the spur is to be applied only behind the girth. ' Do you
take me; for a fool?' the tyro answers. Certainly not, my dear
sir ; but if, after a hard day, you will, after dismounting from
your gallant steed, be careful to examine him, you may possibly
be surprised to -find that the particular spot, a hand's breadth
behind the girth, is one of the very few places that have remained
virgin to your steel.

Finally, let the young rider bear always in mind that he owes
everything to his horse, and do what he can to return the debt.
After the day's work is over do not let him get cold and stiff.
Move off as soon as you decently can, and keep him gently
going till you get him home. If you have far to go, and the
day has been a long and hard one, get him a few mouthfuls of
good gruel if you can : you have probably had some mouth-
fuls of something more inspiring than gruel, and he has appetites
as well as you. But be careful of the place you put him in.
See that there are no draughts ; throw a rug over his loins while
he is at his food, and until you too stand in imperative need of
some refreshment wait upon him at his. It is not much to do
for him in return for all he has done for you. Ten minutes at
the outside is quite long enough for the halt, unless the poor
beast be in a very bad way indeed, and then, if the quarters are
tolerably decent, it were better for him to stay there for the
night, but you must stay with him. As a general rule, however,
it is best for your horse as well as for yourself, to get home as
soon as you can. By keeping up a steady even jog of some six

THE RIDER.

215

miles an hour it is wonderful how quickly you get over the
ground. It is not a pleasant pace, granted ; but he has been
going, remember, all day at the pace which suited your conve-
nience best ; it is not much to ask of you to go now at that
which best suits his. Get off and walk by his side occasionally.
It will be a world of relief to him, besides stretching your
own legs. Regarding the horse from a selfish point of view

' Get off and walk by his side occasionally.'

only, you should never forget that the more care you take
of him, the more care will he take of you. ' Of all our rela-
tions,' says Whyte-Melville, ' with the dumb creation, there are
none in which man has so entirely the best of it as in the one-
sided partnership that exists between the horse and his rider.'
Let it be your business to see that the profits of this partner-
ship are not all on one side. They will be the larger and the more
enduring the more the working partner gets his proper share.

216 HUNTING.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SHIRES.

THE Shires are the eye of hunting England. There are indeed
some who maintain that there is no hunting worthy of the
name anywhere else : veterans who regard them as the poet's
hero, who married the gardener's daughter, regarded the picture

of his dead wife :

the idol of my youth,
The darling of my manhood, and alas !
Now the most blessed memory of mine age.

Such a one would be that distinguished soldier who, as the
story goes, when asked by a mild stranger if he had ever been
out with the Crawley and Horsham, thundered in reply, ' No,
sir ! I have never hunted with any hounds in my life but

the Quorn and the Pytchley, and I'll take d d good care

I never do ! ' an expression of opinion which, it may here be
observed, the narrator of this .story by no means subscribes to.
Geographically defined the bhiicc are limited to three
counties, Leicestershire, Rutlandshire, and NorthampiunGhi
But a geographical definition will not serve. A considerable
part of the Belvoir country is, for instance, in Lincolnshire. Now
to hunt with that famous pack is most certainly to hunt in the
Shires ; to hunt with the Burton, the Blankney, or the Brocklesby,
which also wage war with the foxes of Lincolnshire, is not. Again,
Lord Ferrers' hounds, which hunt a little tract of country chipped
off the north-west corner of the Quorn, are not held to be free
of the guild. Neither is the Atherstone, part of whose hunting
ground lies in Leicestershire ; nor the two Warwickshire packs,
nor the Duke of Grafton's hounds, nor the Oakley, all of which

THE SHIRES. 217

g~> often into Northamptonshire. The distinction is really one
of fashion, not of geography. By the SMres is meant the
country hunted over by the following packs of hounds the
Belvoir, the Cottesmore, the Quorn, including Sir Bache
Cunard's, and the Pytchley. So some unwritten law, dating
from what era we know not, has ordained.

Let us take the BELVOIR first, a position it is well .entitled
to, from the excellence and variety of its country, the excellence
and uniformity of its hounds, its antiquity, and the grand style
in which things have always been done within its precincts.
The kennel books of the Belvoir hounds stretch back to 1756.
Like all the historic packs the stag was their earliest chase.
The foxhounds were established in the days of the third Duke
of Rutland who died in 1779, at the patriarchal age of eighty-
three. The Marquis of Granby, whose jolly face and big bald
head once English inns knew well, and the Frenchmen also,
much to their disgust, on the day of Warburg, 1 seems to have
been the first master. The fourth Duke died when his son
\vas but a lad of nine, and during his minority the hounds,
which were made up by his guardian and uncle, Henry, fifth
Duke of Beaufort, from the Badminton kennels, were managed
by a committee under the direction of Sir Carnaby Haggerston.
In 1831 Lord Forester held the reins, and kept hold of them
till the present duke came to the title in i857. 2 There are no
such beautiful hounds, men say, in England, certainly none of
such pure and direct pedigree. ' Their beautiful uniformity
of colouring, their high class, and their wonderful evenness in^
appearance are quite unapproached elsewhere. It might be
thought that these qualities could not have been brought to such
a pitch of excellence without sacrifice of other more practical
attributes, did we not know that nearly a century and a half
has been reaching this standard, and that each year as many
as fifty couple of puppies (occasionally even more) are sent
out to walk. With such a choice of new material there can be

1 See Carlyle's Frederick the Great, book xx. ch. ii.
z Cecil's Records of the Chase, ch. ii.

2i8 HUNTING.

little difficulty in filling up the gaps, or even to maintain a
standard so unyielding. It puzzles an outsider to imagine how
the kennel men ever learn their hounds by name so extra-
ordinarily similar are they in marking and contour. Every
hound has the black " saddle-mark " on his back ; every
hound has his " Belvoir tan " head ; while the groundwork of
each skin is purest white. ' These beautiful markings, which
are the peculiar type of this pack, are said to have been derived
from a breed of Lord Monson's which was very famous in
Lincolnshire about the close of last century. Much of the old
Quorn strain of Mr. Meynell's is also in the pack, for in 1780
when Mr. Heron hunted the Cheshire country he bred largely
from that blood, and when he left the field his hounds went to
the Belvoir kennels. Twenty-four inches was the standard, till
the year 1842, when it was lowered an inch by Will Goodall,
who then took the horn from the hands of the veteran Goosey
who had carried it for six-and-twenty seasons.

The most central point of the hunt is Grantham, a trim
little town of some" 5,000 inhabitants, 105 miles from London,
two hours and a half journey by the Great Northern line from
King's Cross. Six miles off stands Belvoir Castle and the
kennels, and all the best meets are within a radius of some
dozen miles. 'No country,' says 'Brooksby,' 'presents a
greater variety in itself than the Belvoir. Within its confines
you may ride over small grass meadows, broad grazing grounds,
light heath, and heavy plough.' The most fashionable district
lies, of course, on the Leicestershire side. On Wednesdays and
on alternate Saturdays the meets lie Meltonwards. Croxton
Park, the famous battle-ground of amateur jockeys, lies just
midway between Grantham and Melton. Stonesby Gorse,
Newman's Gorse, Freeby Wood, and Brentingby Spinneys,
are the great coverts in these parts ; but it is, and has been for
long, a rule that the fixtures of these hounds never presuppose
the drawing of any special cover. It was from Freeby Wood

1 The Hunting Countries of England, by ' Brooksby : ' a most useful work, to
which we have been largely indebted for this and the following chapter.

THE SHIRES. 219

that Dick Christian pounded a famous crowd of some two
hundred 'each determined to ride, each resolved to be first'
on Sir James Musgrave's Red Rose in a 'crasher over the
Lings to Croxton Park wall in sixteen minutes.' 'I was head
man all the way,' he told ' The Druid ' with pardonable pride ;
'Sir James was on his old grey Baronet; Lord Gardner,
Mr. Maxse, and Sir Harry (Goodricke) he was on Limner
were the only ones near me. Sir Harry shouts to me to
open a gate, and I jumps it and then turns round and laughs ;
"Hang you," he shouts, "that's the way you open gates, is it?"
It was a good five miles' regular coursing, severe jumping.'
Stonesby and Piper Hole are also noted meets, and from the
latter, if you are in luck, you will get a gallop over the best
part of the famed Belvoir Vale, which the veteran Dick used
to think afforded a 'partickler pretty landscape,' but whose
prettiness to ride over will depend much on the quality of your
horse and your heart. Then there is Melton Spinney, only
four miles from Melton, and Mr. Burbage's covert, which is
nearer still, lying in a loop where the boundaries of the Belvoir,
the Quorn, and the Cottesmore touch. Both these are in the
Duke's county, and if a good fox goes away from either towards
Melton, there will probably be wigs on the Green. From
Coston Covert to Woodwell Head ; from Mr. Sherbrooke's
Gorse to Holwell Mouth, to Dalby Wood, or over the Stygian
Smite to the Curate, are the lines 'Brooksby' specifies as
affording the cream of a Belvoir gallop, short and sharp, for so
great is ihe crowd and so lawless the riding on those days, that
the first burst is as often as not the last. Dick Christian de-
scribes the heroes of his early prime as 'all riding like devils
against each other ' across the vale. The late Mr. Bromley-
Davenport, in his volume called 'Sport,' reports a significant
conversation which once passed within his hearing. Sir Richard
Sutton, who was then hunting the Quorn country, at one of
his meets called aside a gentleman who was supposed to regard
his own position in the run as the capital feature in the day's
sport, and, pointing at one particular hound, said, 'Please

HUNTING.

kindly take notice of that hound. He is the most valuable
animal in the pack, and I would not have him ridden over for
anything.' The gentleman courteously, and very candidly,
replied, ' I would do anything to oblige you, Sir Richard ;
but I have a shocking bad memory for hounds, and / am
afraid he will have to take his chance with the rest!' Whether
such shamelessness would be confessed to-day we cannot
decide, but it is not impossible it might be practised. 1

In the less fashionable quarters of this fine country there is
quite as good fun, and still better sport. There is plenty of
grass to gallop over and plenty of fences to jump, of all sorts
and sizes ; the fields are more amenable to discipline ; the foxes
are said to be stouter ; while the hounds remain the same ! On
the south, along the Cottesmore boundary between Grantham
and Folkingham is some good grass country and well fenced,
with plenty of timber, but no water to speak of. Northwards
from Folkingham, past Aswarby, the ploughs are more frequent ;
but they carry a good scent in wet weather, and foxes are many
and stout. Tending still north, beyond Sleaford, from Ranceby
on to Leadenham, the land is lighter, being of a heathy com-
plexion, and fenced mostly with stone walls, over which
the hounds get very much the better of the horses. West
of Leadenham, which is one of the boundaries between the
Belvoir and the Blankney, lies another fine stretch of grass,
and then, turning south towards Belvoir, comes some very deep
plough with some very stiff fences, perhaps about the hardest
part to cross of all the Duke's country when the scent is good.
Horses of all sorts, then, are wanted to ride up to the Belvoir
hounds : timber jumpers, water jumpers, fast ones, stout ones,
blood and bone ; and, above all, a good head and a good heart
for the rider.

The glory of the QUORN dates from 1753, when the im-
mortal Meynell began his mastership of forty-seven years.

1 This hound belonged to the Badminton kennel This gentleman, in the
following monih of May, went there for Bath Races. In spite of his reply, he
took so much notice of the hound that in the kennel he picked it out of forty
couple. EDITOR.

THE SHIRES. 221

The hounds then were kept at Great Bowden Inn, which is on
the borders of Northamptonshire ; the master, or masters for
Mr. Boothby bore half the burden of the expenses living at
Langton Hall. A little later Mr. Meynell removed to Quorn-
don Hall, where the kennels now are, and thence the pack took
its famous name. In those days there were no woodlands
within the limits of the country, and so Meynell used to stoop
his hounds to hare in the spring, so as to get them handy when
the real business began. This did not, as may be imagined,
result in universal steadiness. ' The Druid ' tells a story of a
brilliant burst of twenty minutes after a hare ending with a
kill in the turnpike road : ' Ah ! ' observed the philosophical
master, ' there are days when they will hunt anything.' Lord
Sefton followed Meynell, and did things in an imperial manner,
with two packs and two huntsmen, and everything ' in con-
catenation accordingly.' His lordship was the first to introduce
the custom of second horses. He was a very heavy man, and
stopped for nothing, so that no horse could live under him for
more than ten minutes if hounds ran hard. But he had a
grand stud, nearly all thoroughbred and as large as dray-
horses ; and with three or even four out at a time, he managed
to hold his own with the light-weights. 1 Then arose the star of
Melton, which still shines, if not with quite such supreme lustre.
From 1805 to 1807 Lord Foley was king, and then came the
great Assheton Smith, who ruled for ten years, and was suc-
ceeded by the universal Osbaldeston. In 1821 Osbaldeston
went into Hampshire, changing quarters with Sir Bellingham
Graham ; but the change did not last long, and in 1823 'the
Squire ' was back at Quorndon, Sir Bellingham going into the
Albrighton country. Both Assheton Smith and Osbaldeston
hunted their own hounds, and in that capacity Dick Christian,
who, thanks to ' The Druid,' is our main authority for those
golden days, did not think very nobly of either of thtm. The
former drew his coverts too quickly, and so ' drew over his fox
scores of times.' Also, ' he was very uncertain : sometimes he
would not lift his hounds at all,' and, adds the veteran, 'you

1 The Post and Paddock, ch. xiii. ; Records of the Chase, ch. vi.

222 HUNTING.

must liff, and lose no time if you want runs in Leicestershire with
those big fields? One quality, however, he had, sure to have
been appreciated by those big eager fields ; ' he was always
for being away as quick as possible.' It was his maxim that
the best fox always broke first ; and after the first that broke
off he would go, often with only three or four couples of
hounds. This, no doubt, entailed a tremendous burst, but at
the first check as often as not the run was spoiled. 'The
Squire 'seems to have been still more 'uncertain.' 'He was
the oddest man you ever saw at a covert-side. He would talk
for an hour : then he would half draw, and talk again, and
often blow his horn when there was no manner of occasion
always so chaffy.' But he is allowed to have been ' very keen
of the sport,' and to have got away with his fox ' like a shot ; '
while, for sheer riding, of his great rival Dick vowed ' no man
that ever came into Leicestershire could beat Mr. Smith ; I
don't care what any of them says.'

Lord Southampton followed ' the Squire.' He bought the
Oakley pack in 1829, which was then in high repute, built new
kennels at Leicester, and the hounds were called after his name
instead of by their own title. To him succeeded Sir Harry
Goodricke, and the hounds took his name, which indeed was
but fair, seeing that he paid all expenses out of his o\vn pocket.
He too built new kennels at Thrussington, midway between
Melton and Leicester, and a much more convenient place than
the latter. His early death in 1833 ^ tne hounds to Mr.
Francis Holyoake, who subsequently took the name of Good-
ricke. In his time a part of the Quorn country was handed over
to the second Marquis of Hastings, who had started a pack to
hunt the Donnington country, pretty much that now hunted by
Lord Ferrers. Two seasons were enough for Mr. Holyoake, and
three for Mr. Errington. His next successor, Lord Suffield, who
followed, spent a great deal of money, building new kennels
and stabling at Billesdon, and giving Mr. Lambton 3,000
guineas for his hounds. But the sport, for some cause or
another, was not equal to the cost, and after one season he
gave place to Mr. Hodgson of Holderness fame, who brought

THE SHIRES. 223

his hounds with him from Yorkshire. It was in his reign that
Assheton Smith, then in his sixty-fifth year, brought his hounds
from Tedworth for a fortnight into Leicestershire. The opening
day was at Rollestone, when it is calculated upwards of 2,000
people were present, but there was, perhaps of course, no sport.
After Mr. Hodgson came Mr. Greene, of Rollestone, a fine
sportsman, who figures in the great ' Quarterly ' run as skimming
over the Whissendine on his bay mare, ' like a swallow on a
summer's evening.' In 1847 he retired in favour of Sir Richard
Button, who had won a great name in the Burton and Cottes-
more countries. In 1857 the latter took the Donnington
country back, and then finding the whole rather too large to be
properly hunted by one pack, he handed a part of it over to
his son Mr. Richard Sutton, building him kennels at Skeffing-
ton and furnishing him with hounds. No man ever showed
better sport in Leicestershire than Sir Richard, and when he
died at the beginning of the season of 1855, it was a bad day
for the Quorn. Young Sir Richard and Captain Frank Sutton
finished the season, and then Lord Stamford came to the front,
with a pack composeo) largely of old hounds and a good draft
from Mr. Anstruther Thomson's kennels. In this mastership
Mr. Tailby took a part of the Quorn country together with a
slice of the Cottesmore, and showed rare sport up to 1871, when
the latter, according to agreement, reverted to its original lords,
and Mr. Tailby continued for some seasons longer to content
himself with two days a week in the diminished province now
governed by Sir Bache Cunard. Aftei Lord Stamford, who kept
the hounds for seven seasons, Mr. Clowes followed for three,
and then the rather casual reign of the Marquis of Hastings,
which lasted for two. Mr. Musters came next, with a good
pack of hounds out of South Nottinghamshire. After three
years he divided his country with Mr. Coupland, and after
two more took his pack with him back to his own tents, and
Mr. Coupland was left to his own resources. He was unlucky at
first, having bought the Craven pack, which was too slow for
Leicestershire. But the famous Tom Firr came to him in 1872
from the North Warwickshire, and matters soon became mere

224 HUNTING.

lively. Mr. Coupland managed matters till the season of
1884-5, when Lord Manners succeeded, and so we pass from
the domain of history into the living present.

Melton Mowbray is, of course, the cardinal point of this
famous hunting ground, though not the central one. There
hounds are comparatively close at hand every day in the week.
It rarely happens that a ride of ten miles at most will not find
them, and a ride to covert in Leicestershire has been declared
by an enthusiast to be better than a run anywhere else in the
world. From this little paradise, isled in a sea of grass, you get
the Quorn on Mondays and Fridays ; on Tuesdays, the Cottes-
more; on Wednesday, the Belvoir ; on Thursday comes either a
by-day with the Quorn or one of Sir Bache Cunard's northern
meets; on Saturday, the Belvoir and the Cottesmore are alter-
nately at your door. To take all the goods thus lavishly
provided a large stud is a necessity. True, as 'Brooksby' says,
six thoroughly well-seasoned nags, with the inevitable cast-iron
hack (who must both jump and gallop more than a bit) will
carry you through the season if you have luck, and here and there
a timely frost comes to help. Some men can certainly get more
out of one horse than many can out of two. But even the
cleverest and most saving rider must lose much of the fun if he
makes Melton his head-quarters with only six hunters in his
stable. The best sport in this country comes generally in the
afternoon, when the coffee-housers have gone home, and hounds
have a chance. But although you may have had no sport in
the morning, there has almost certainly been enough work,
what with trotting or galloping from one covert to another, a
short scurry here and another there, to take the morning steel out
of your horse. Then what are you to do ? go home with the
crowd, or stay and play second fiddle to your happier fellows
on their fresh horses ; or come to inevitable grief in a brave
attempt to show them the way on your tired one ? As to not
hunting every day from Melton, that never entered into any
human head. So, though undoubtedly Melton was made for
man to hunt from, it is not every man (nor horse either) was

THE SHIRES, 225

made to hunt from Melton. Non cuivis but the proverb
is something musty.

Plenty of sport is to be got both from Leicester and Lough-
borough, and under more moderate conditions. The latter,
only three miles from the kennels, is the most central point in
the Quorn country proper, while the former is just on the
border line between that and Sir B. Cunard's, and is handy too
for an occasional day with the Atherstone. Some five-and-
twenty years ago Leicester was a famous quarter for hunting
men, who used to gather in numbers at the Old Bell Inn. But
then it was a cleanly quiet little market town; now it is a great
manufacturing town, not very quiet, and not at all cleanly.
Loughborough is about three hours from St. Pancras; Leicester,
about two and a quarter ; Melton, about three and a half : too
far all of them to be reached from London on the morning of
hunting, unless you are prepared to leave your bed not much
after four o'clock !

But the pick of the Quorn country is certainly to be got
from Melton. Shoby Scholes and Lord Aylesford's are the
great coverts near by : the first a close-grown dell, the latter a
covert of gorse and broom of some twenty or thirty acres; ' rare
things ' had Dick Christian seen from here over to Oakham in
the Cottesmore country or to Belvoir. Wartnaby Stone-pits
is another famous place, only four miles from head-quarters.
There were fearful fences hereabouts in the old days : spiked
gates, mortised rails, and all manner of devilries. The owner
used to say, ' There never were but two men fit to come out
hunting Lord Alvanley, who walked 18 stone, and Quarley
Wilson they were the only men that ever rode straight across
my farm.' Farther on is Cossington Gorse, from which if the
fox breaks across the old Roman road between Leicester and
Newark, over the Hoby and Thrussingcon lordships, to Shoby
Scholes, you will get such a gallop over such a country as you
will find nowhere else, men say, even in the Shires. When the
Quorn meet at Six Hills, about six miles from Melton, you get
the pick of all the best coverts : those aforesaid, Thrussington

Q

226

HUNTING.

Gorse and Wolds, Walton Thorns (rich in the memories of
historic gallops), Cossington Gorse, and Mr. Craddock's Spinney.
Northwards still towards Widmerpool you come on the plough,
fairly light but with blind fences. But from the Curate's Gorse,'
or from the neighbouring Parson's Thorns you may get into the

' A gallop over Twyford
Vale. 1

Belvoir Vaie at its very finest part. It was in this neighbour-
hood, from Widmerpool right across the Vale to Blackberry
Hill, that Assheton Smith placed the best run he had ever had
in Leicestershire. Whether it was the Parson or the Curate who
once said in Dick Christian's hearing that he used to fairly
tremble before a vale fence to think how he could get over it,

THE SHIRES. 227

that old chronicler did not specify. Holwell Mouth, Saxelby
Spinney, and Grimston Gorse are all shared with the Belvoir,
and a grand grass country lies all aiound them.

South of Melton, across the Wreake, historic names lie
thick : Kirby Gate and Great Dalby mean a fox at Gartree Hill,
leagues of grass with 'oxers' thick as leaves in Vallambrosa, and
the immemorial Whissendine. It was in this covert dwelt the
legendary fox of ' the Squire's ' time, that always broke at the
same point and went over the same line, ten miles of it through
Leesthorpe, past Cold Overton to Oakham Pastures, where he
invariably disappeared in some miraculous way, undiscoverable
by hounds or men. From Adam's Gorse you may get a gallop
over the Melton Steeplechase Course; from Thorpe Trussels,
Ashby Pastures, and Cream Gorse, you may go straight to heaven
or that earthly parallel in a Quornite's eyes, found in a gallop
over the Twyford Vale. Barkby Holt and Ashby Pastures are
other names to conjure by. Here, in old Dick's time, grew the
stoutest bullfinches, the regular 'stitchers,' at which 'we used to
go slap-bang, holloaing like fun to cheer up horses and men.'
Hereabouts, too, are Rearsby and Gaddesby : Lowesby Hall,
made famous by poor Bromley- Davenport in one of the best
parodies ever written ; Baggrave and John O'Gaunt ; Scraptoft,
and most traditional of all, Billesdon, with its immortal Coplow,
which is really within Sir B. Cunard's border. The historical
Billesdon Coplow run was in Mr. Meynell's last year of master-
ship, on February 24, 1800, on a bitter cold day with the wind
blowing from the north-east. The distance is said to have been
twenty-eight miles, and the estimate of the time occupied in
covering it is fabulously short. After crossing the Soar, the
hounds changed their fox and carried the new one on to
Enderby Gorse, where they lost him. The only man who
crossed the stream on horseback was Mr. Germaine. A famous
picture was painted of the run at this point by Mr. Loraine
Smith, and, according to him, the only men who got so far
were himself, Mr. Germaine, 'Jack' Musters (Byron's rival
in love and Assheton Smith's in sport), Lord Maynard, his

228 HUNTING.

groom, and Jack Raven, the huntsman. There was another
great run from here in ' the Squire's ' time, ten miles to Ranks-
boro', of which only ' the Squire,' on his famous little Assheton,
and Mr. Greene, on his even more famous bay mare, saw the
end. Along the western boundary from Kirby Muxloe north-
wards to Lord Ferrers' and the Nottinghamshire districts the
county changes ; woods grow larger and ploughs mostly take
the place of grass. Still, foxes are as plentiful as ploughs ; and
as the hard-riding dandies do not patronise these uncivilised
parts, the hunting is good enough, whatever the riding may be.
If your fox slips from Charmvood Forest, as the wild hilly
country from Bradgate to Gracedieu is called, over the Ather-
stone border, there will be plenty of riding.

The country now hunted by Sir Bache Cunard's hounds is
that once known as Mr. Tailby's. As we have said, it was first
made a separate country in Sir Richard Sutton's time, and was
once larger by the piece a few years ago reclaimed by the
Cottesmore. It has also been known as the Billesdon Hunt, from
the fact of the hounds having been originally kept at Billesdon,
a fact commemorated by the initials 'B. H.' still worn on their
coat-buttons by members of the hunt. In the old days, before
Mr. Tailby's area became so sadly circumscribed, when Jack
Goddard, and then Frank Goodall, held the horn, there was no
such sport shown anywhere in the Shires, Leicester and Market
Harboro' command the country, but if you intend to limit
yourself entirely to these hounds, and they will give you sport
enough unless you insist on hunting every day in the week,
either Kibworth or Billesdon is more central. Five days a
fortnight is the fare provided Mondays, Thursdays, and alter-
nate Saturdays, when the Cottesmore are away on the eastern
side of their kingdom. Gumley, Mowsley, Shemsby, Brunting-
thorpe, Kilby and Wistow are the pick of the Monday meets
in the southern district. Most of the coverts are small, and
there is more plough than in the northern half; but there are
several fine galloping bits, from John Ball, for instance, or
Walton Holt westward to the Atherstone country. All these

THE SHIRES. 229

places are on the Market Harboro' side. Leicester way,
Thurnby Spinney, Glen Gorse, Norton Gorse, Noseley, and
Sheepshorns, are all famous places for good foxes, and almost
certain to grant a run over a glorious country. The Saturdays
are generally spent in dusting the woodlands on the Cottesmore
boundary, from which runs may come, and if they do they will
probably be over a very stiff country.

'For the truest sport, the straightest foxes, for perfection
of country, for long runs and fast runs, commend us,' says
'Brooksby,' 'to the wild pastures of the COTTESMORE.' This
establishment seems to have owed its origin to Sir William
Lowther, first Earl of Lonsdale, who kept a pack of harriers at
Uffington in the last quarter of last century, which about 1790
he turned into foxhounds. When his hounds were sold, their
pedigree went back 130 years, which would presumably carry it
into the seventeenth century. According to Dick Christian,
who was born at Cottesmore, a Mr. Noel, of Exton, was the
oldest accorded master of this country. He kept the hounds
at Cottesmore, and his huntsman was Arthur Abbey, 'a big
heavy man, with a rasping strong voice.' He was with Sir
Gilbert Heathcote afterwards, and is famous, if for nothing
else, for his saying to a parson who had just subsided into a
muddy ditch : 'You can lie where you are, sir : you won't be
wanted till next Sunday,' a happy thought subsequently ap-
propriated, as everyone remembers, by John Leech. Lord
Gainsborough took the hounds after Mr. Noel's death, and
after his own they passed to Sir William Lowther. Sir Gilbert
Heathcote's mastership seems to have lasted about ten years,
from 1799 to 1809, during which time Dick Christian was with
him as whip and occasional huntsman, and general breaker
and trainer of young horses. Then the hounds went back to
Sir William, who had blossomed into the Earl of Lonsdale, and
in that family they stayed some time. Indeed the Lowthers
have always been more or less connected with these hounds.
When Mr. Tailby took the lower p^rt of the Quorn country in
1856-7, he was also given, as has been said, a slice of the

230 HUNTING.

Cottesmore, on the particular understanding that if ever a
Lowther took to the latter hounds again, it should revert to its
ancient use. And this actually did happen in the season of
1871-2. In the early years of the century the Cottesmore
country was very wild, rough, and deep ; even now it is much
the wildest, the most in a state of nature, of the Shires. This
made the hounds particularly good hunters, and though not
so quick in the open as the Quorn, they were always held to
be the best on a line. The historians of the chase are less
voluminous on the Cottesmore hunt than on many others.
With the exception of Dick Christian's reminiscences, and the
fact that Sir Richard Sutton was master for a short but brilliant
reign before taking the Quorn, there are few facts to be gathered
from history. Dick tells us of a tremendous run in Sir Gilbert's
reign, known as 'The Prince of Wales's day,' afterwards George
the Fourth. His Royal Highness was staying at Normanton ;
' he was nowhere, bless you ; they gave him the brush, though,
just to please him.' The Prince must have had plenty to keep
him company, for it was, by the veteran's account, a desperate
affair. ' We found at Armley Wood, then through Empingham,
Cottesmore Wood, straight through Exton Park, across the
North Road by Horn Lane toll-bar, through Ardwick Wood,
where the balloon from Nottingham fell, The Lings, Fowthorpe
Oaks, Stamford Field-side, Royal Belthorpe, Rasen Gretford ;
then we came to Langtoft and Deeping let me see and
Tallerton, and then by Uppington Wood, and killed at Essen-
dine Park that's it. Six horses died in the field ; these they laid
heels up'ards. Lord Charles Manners and Sir Gilbert were up
first. There must have been twenty-two miles or more. The run
would have made sixteen or seventeen of it. The late Lord
Lonsdale was out, and Lindow, and Germaine, and Vanneck. I
would be about twenty-eight then, and somewhere about ten
stone.' Oakham and Stamford are the head-quarters most
commonly patronised, and the former the most. A quiet market
town it is, about three hours' journey from London, with plenty
of good accommodation for man and beast. From here you get

THE SHIRES. 231

not only all the pick of the native meets, but the Quorn, the
Belvoir, and Sir B. Cunard's are also accessible. Westward
and southward from Oakham to the Quorn boundaries is the
best of the Cottesmore country : fine grass fields carrying a
good scent in almost all weathers, plenty of foxes, and fences
'tremendious,' as Dick Christian would have said, and did
say, over which, on a memorable day, he pounded the late
Lord Cardigan on his famous Dandy. There are some stiff
hills about Tilton and Launde, which are not much admired
when they present themselves in the middle of a quick burst,
however much they contribute at other times to the pic-
turesqueness of the scenery. Leesthorpe and Langham are
the favourite meets hereabouts. From the first you get the
Punchbowl, from the second Ranksboro Gorse, names surely
familiar to every man, woman, or child that has ever heard of
a fox, a hound, or a horse. Close to Melton are Wyld's Lodge
and Stapleford Park. Just outside the latter is a noted draw,
Laxton's covert, below which runs a well-known stream, com-
monly but wrongly assimilated with the Whissendine. If you
run from Laxton's to Ranksboro, however, you are pretty sure
to cross the latter, and not absolutely certain not to get into it.
A great feature of the Cottesmore country is its woods ; not
the regular woodlands that lie on the eastern side beyond
Stamford, but the smaller ones hereabouts the Great and
Little woods of Owston, the woods of Launde and Launde
Park, of Tilton, and Wardley, and Witham, and Orton Park.
A woodland draw has its drawbacks, of course (we protest
against any intention of a pun) ; but these are such splendid
nurseries of foxes that no good sportsman would wish to see
them diminished by so much as a tree. Besides, when you do
get well away from them, you can hardly go wrong, and no fox
ever runs so staunchly and straightly as a woodland-bred one.

On the eastern side of the hunt, from Stamford northwards
past Bowne to Grimsthorpe Park, which is almost on the
borders of the Belvoir, runs a great range of woodlands. Full
of foxes they are, but not otherwise attractive. The country

2 3 2 HUNTING.

hereabouts is mostly heavy plough, and intersected by wide and
deep drains. A stout, short-legged horse is wanted here, not
fast, but a good jumper. For the rest, a nag that will carry
you well to the Quorn will not disgrace you with the Cottes-
more. But he must be a strong as well as a well-bred one, for
the pastures are heavier here than the Melton grass, and the
country generally much wilder and less bothered by scientific
agriculturists. The stiffest part of it all is the Skeffington
lordship, which you will probably cross (if you and your horse
can) from Launde or Tilton Woods. The ' oxers ' hereabouts
are terrific ; the hills are steep ; and in most of the valleys are
diabolical freaks of nature known as 'bottoms, 'almost amount-
ing to ravines, some of which no horse yet foaled could be put
at with any chance of getting over, even with a fall. ' A wide-
spread region, scarcely inhabited ; ground that carries a scent
in all weathers ; woodlands which breed a travelling race ; and
mile upon mile of untracked grass, where a fox will meet
nothing more terrifying than a bullock.' So ' Brooksby ' sum-
marises this glorious country, and those who have known the
pleasures of a gallop from Ranksboro Gorse to Laxton's
Covert, from Owston Wood to John o' Gaunt, or from Witham
Common over the Vale of Catmose, will probably agree with
him that there is no sport in England like that shown by the
Cottesmore bitches.

No pack of hounds in England, not even its great rival the
Quorn, has so memorable a history as the PYTCHLEY. It has
even, as one may say, a political history of its own, having,
as no one will ever forget, been the cause of Homeric laughter
in the House of Commons, on an occasion which no biographer
of Mr. John Bright must ever pretend to pass by. The name
comes from an ancient Elizabethan house, built by a certain
Sir Eustace Isham about 1570, and pulled down by the late
George Payne. The lords of the manor, ' Cecil ' l tells us, held
it of the Crown on condition of their keeping dogs to destroy
wolves, foxes, polecats, and such like creatures. But that ex-
1 Records of the Chase, ch. vii.

THE SHIRES. 233

cellent sportsman and pleasant writer, the late Charles Clarke,
has traced the name yet farther into ' the dark backward of
time.' 1 He has traced it back to one William of Pightesley,
who, in Henry the Third's reign, succeeded to the Pstah of
one Alwyne the Hunter by a tenure binding him to chase
'wolves, foxes, and other vermin.' The 'Pytchley Hunt' of
those days seems to have been somewhat oddly composed.
There were ' sixteen dogs ' for hunting fallow deer, and the
staff consisted of a royal huntsman, ' two horses and three men.'
Their appearance could not well have been splendid, at least
from a sumptuary point of view. The prince and great nobles
of that day went, by all accounts, very gorgeously clad, but
their retainers apparently something less so. The leader of
Henry the Third's greyhounds, for instance, was allowed only
fourpence for his boots and shoes ; ' the winter shoes of the
whole establishment of Edward de Blatherwycke (a better name
for a member of Parliament than for a sportsman), foxhunter
to Edward the First, cost only seven shillings.' Shillings and
pennies meant then a great deal more than they do now ; still,
even on the most liberal computation, the expenditure could
hardly have been reckless. As the Cottesmore is associated
with the Lowther family, so the family of Spencer has long been
connected with the fortunes of the Pytchley. Lord Althorp
hunted the country for many years before his death in 1746,
though when his hounds became foxhounds purely is not
known. From that year till 1794, the Spencers ruled over the
Pytchley, hunting alternately what were then known as the
Althorp and Pytchley countries. Nearly ail the gentlemen of
Northamptonshire hunted then, and when the hounds were at
Althorp, all the squires in the neighbourhood kept open house :
when the time for Pytchley came, they shut up their houses
and with their families followed the hounds to the latter place.
The Pytchley Club was as famous then as the Old Club at
Melton became afterwards, and among its best known members
was Assheton Smith's father. Dick Knight was the huntsman,

1 See Crumbs from a Sportsman's Table, vol. ii. ch. xiii.

234 HUNTING.

renowned in song and story, and the sport was glorious. In
the famous library at Althorp there are some interesting manu-
script records of the history of the hunt, from which Mr. Clarke
was allowed to make extracts. They date from the year 1773,
when John, Earl Spencer, kept the hounds, and also a most
minute diary of the sport. On October 23 of that year there
seems to have been a red-letter day thus recorded :

Out: Lord Spencer, Lord Jersey, Lord Robert Spencer,
Mr. Bouvcrie, Mr. Knightley, Mr. Hanbury, Mr. Percival, Colonel
Burgoyne, c. Threw off with the old hounds at Bagbrooke Hills.
Found quite at the extremity of the cover. The fox took a circle
round the hill and over the open field to the Dirt House Cover,
through which he ran. He then made for the thorns on the edge
of the turnpike road, back over the other side of the same open
field, in view of the company up the hill, into the cover, where he
was first found, and where, after some little check, a hound was
seizing him, but was whipped off by Dick Knight, and he got to
ground. A fresh fox then jumped up, went into the inclosure,
crossed the brook, through the thorns before mentioned, over the
high road, bearing down the ground to the left. He then passed
over the same brook to Lichborough Springs, by the edge of Grub's
Copse, without daring to go into it. Keeping on in a line for Tow-
cester, till he came within two miles of it, when he returned to the
right, and within the distance of two or three grounds was killed
in a turnip field. This was a very pleasing chase, having a great
deal of steady running and excellent hunting; but the strong inclo-
sures at the first starting off prevented part of the company from
seeing the whole of it. An old fox.

This Dick Knight, who seems generally to have been
spoken of as ' Mr.' Knight, is not to be confounded with his
namesake of a later day, the one mentioned above. The real,
the historic ' Dick,' was a great character in hunting tradition.
He seems to have been famous rather as a rider than a hunts-
man ; at least his virtues must have mostly lain the former way.
'The Druid' thus describes him : '

He was a fine horseman, and was magnificently mounted, but
he had no practice. He thought he knew better than the hounds,

1 The Post and the Paddock, ch. xiv.

THE SHIRES. 235

and was too fond of lifting them. . . . He had neither patience nor
perseverance, and was always for finding a fresh fox. Having
plenty of horses, he would gallop off miles distant. Half the field
thought the hounds were running, and did not discover their mis-
take till they got to a fresh covert with their horses half done.
Such we believe to have been the mode adopted by the renowned
Dick Knight.

Then, after one season under a Mr. Buller, the hounds
passed to the great John Warde. He brought the two countries
into one, and moved the kennels to Boughton. Large hounds
were his passion, 'great calves,' as the Quorn men called
them ; but large as they were they could chase as well as
hunt, and their steadiness was a byword through the length
and breadth of hunting England. When ' Glorious John '
left Northamptonshire for the New Forest (a change, indeed !),
the old family came to the front again in the person of Lord
Althorp, who bought the hounds from his predecessor for
1,000 guineas, a pretty good proof of the value of the ' great
calves.' Pytchley once more became the head-quarters, and
the golden years returned. According to ' Cecil,' in which he
differs from ' The Druid,' who, however, is vague in the matter
of dates, and apt sometimes to contradict himself, Charles
King was then the huntsman, a better one than Knight and
quite as good a rider. He is said to have offered to ride,
dance, play the fiddle, and hunt a pack of hounds, against any
man in the midland counties, and, like the first Lord Spencer,
he was very particular in keeping a diary. The Club was then
in its prime, with Frank Forester, the giant Dick Gurney, Hugo
Meynell, Sir Charles Knightley, Sir David Baird, George Payne
(father of the late George), the brothers Allix, Sir Thomas
Salisbury, and Frederick Ponsonby among its shining lights,
with an occasional flash from Melton in the shape of Lord
Alvanley. This great time lasted till 1820, and then, after a
series of short reigns, including Sir Bellingham Graham's and
Mr. Musters', came 'the Squire's' mastership from 1827 till
1834, which almost rivalled the great days of Lord Althorp's.

236 HUNTING.

Mr. George Payne, Lord Chesterfield (whose reign was as
magnificent as Lord Sefton's in Leicestershire), Mr. Tom (not
Assheton) Smith followed, and then Mr. Payne again. It is in
Mr. Payne's second mastership that we first find connected with
these hounds a name which has since become a household
word in the Pytchley hunt the name of Charles Payne. He
came from the Oakley, having graduated under that fine hunts-
man, George Beers, and at first his duties were confined to the
kennels. It was in Lord Hopetoun's time, in 1852, that Payne
was first entrusted with the horn, and never at any time, or in
any country, did huntsman carry it to more effect. In his
earliest days he was noted as ' a quick, intelligent, well-behaved
servant, and a marvellous fellow to get over a country,' and
these qualities he preserved undiminished to the end of his
active career. From. 1852 till when he went into Wales to Sir
Watkin Wynn, he was at the head of affairs, through the
masterships of Lord Hopetoun, Mr. Villiers, Lord Spencer,
and Mr. Anstruther Thomson. No quicker or keener hunts-
man ever cheered a hound ; no better rider ever threw his leg
over a saddle ; no more civil or intelligent servant ever wore
scarlet. In 1862, the present Lord Spencer came into office
and stayed there for three, seasons, and then followed Mr.
Anstruther Thomson, whose reign will be for ever memorable
for the great run from Waterloo Gorse. In 1873, when Mr.
Naylor was at the head of affairs, a second pack was set on
foot to hunt the Rockingham woodlands. In 1874, Lord
Spencer took the hounds again and kept them for five seasons,
when he retired in favour of Mr. Langham, but for a short
while longer kept the woodland country in his hands, hunting
it two days a week with Brigstock for his head-quarters.

There are six commanding points of departure for the
Pytchley country Rugby, Market Harboro', Weedon, Daven-
try, Lutterworth, and Northampton. Of these, Northampton
is the most central for the country, Market Harboro' the
tnost famous by name, and Rugby, perhaps, the most handy
for all sorts of good hounds and countries of all hunting

THE SHIRES. 237

centres in England. All three, as well as Weedon, are within
a couple of hours' journey from London, and can be reached
by a 7.30 train in time for an eleven o'clock meet.

Rugby, indeed, offers a most unlimited choice of delights.
Besides the Pytchley, the Quorn, Sir Bache Cunard's, the
Atherstone, both the Warwickshire packs and the Oakley are
all tolerably handy on various days throughout the week. A
gallop with Sir Nathaniel over the Aylesbury Vale can also be
encompassed with no extreme labour. There is a capital hotel
and a club, any amount of stabling, and plenty of pleasant
company. It would be hard to find a better place anywhere for
the man obliged to make London his head-quarters, and yet able
to spare a day or two together for his hunting. Almost the only
objection to Rugby is its distance from all the kennels of the
packs it commands. The meets consequently can often be
reached only by rail ; but, on the other hand, of lines of rail-
way there is no lack at Rugby.

To the dwellers at Market Harboro', Sir Bache Cunard's
and the Cottesmore are the only packs of convenient resort
besides their native Pytchley. It has this advantage over
Rugby, that the morning train leaves London half an hour
later. By the souls given to festivity, Market Harboro' may
probably be thought a little dull, though Mr. Sawyer did not
seem to find it so. But to him who regards hunting as a serious
business, not to be mingled with social frivolities, it is a notable
place. Like Rugby, it is far from any kennel, but not so far.

Northampton commands all the southern district of the
Pytchley, and the best also of the Oakley, and the Duke of
Grafton's. Weedon is much in the same category, with the
Bicester and Warwickshire to boot. Lutterworth and Daventry
are quiet little places, rather off the line of railways, but per-
haps no worse for that. The former is on the extreme west of
the country, in a little nook handy for the Atherstone and Sir
B. Cunard's. Daventry is on the extreme south, close to the
borders of the two Warwickshire packs, the Duke of Grafton's
and the northern meets of the Bicester.

238 HUNTING.

The favourite part of this fine and large country is that
known as the Wednesday or Rugby district. The most notable
meets hereabouts are Lilbourne Village, Stamford Hall, Kilworth
Hall, Yelvertoft, Cold Ashby, and Crick, almost as historic a
name as Billesdon. Its fame arose from a marvellous run into
Oxfordshire after a fox found in a hedgerow. A covert was
then made, the horses were prepared for it, says 'The Druid,'
as if for the Derby. From Stamford to Misterton or the
Hemplows ; from Cold Ashby to the latter hills ; from Lil-
bourne to Crick or Stamford, are tremendous lines, ' fit for a
king,' says ' Brooksby,' ' if that king be but well minded and
well mounted.' They take you nearly all over grass, and over
fences of various and most uncompromising sorts. On these
Wednesdays the crowd is so huge, that a ' Pytchley Wednesday'
has passed into a proverb. ' If,' says the eloquent ' Brooksby,'
'you would learn to what colossal magnitude and manifold
variety a hunting field can attain, go out on a Pytchley Wed-
nesday to a favourite fixture ! If you would observe how
such a field can cordially subject itself to proper discipline,
stand at the covert side as one of them ! If, again, you would
put your nerve and self-confidence to a thorough test, make
yourself an atom in the Niagara-like rush to which the " gone
away " is a signal ! If you would mark in its most perfect form
the first essential for a foxhound in the Shires, watch the
Pytchley bitches slipping to the front through the mad torrent.'

On the Market Harboro' side, which is visited on Fridays
and Saturdays alternately with the Weedon side, the fences are
terrific. Jem Mason used to say and no one could speak
with greater authority on such matters that no one could ride
the line straight from Waterloo Gorse to Dingley, without three
falls, no matter what his horse was. And an authority, who
quotes the saying, adds that the ox fences round about Market
Harboro' are simply impossible. ' You can't ride the country
in its immediate neighbourhood straight,' he says. ' It is my
belief,' he declares, with a frankness perhaps more bold than
judicious, ' that these ox fences, more than all else, bar the way

THE SHIRES.

239

to Market Harboro's prosperity as a hunting centre. Bold men,
perhaps, battle with them for a year or two : fathers of families
shudder as they look at them, and decline further acquaintance
at once.' Discretion is the truest valour at Harbortf. To the
stiffness of the Pytchley country generally another witness
speaks from the mouth of one who was not wont to turn his
head away from a big fence. ' Large grass fields,' says Whyte-
Melville, ' from fifty to a hundred acres in extent, carrying a
rare scent, are indeed tempting ; but to my own taste, though
perhaps in this my reader may not agree with me, they would
be more inviting were they not separated by such forbidding

'The Niagara-like rush to which the "gone-away " is a signal.'

fences. A high black-thorn hedge, strong enough to hold an
elephant, with one and sometimes two ditches, fortified, more-
over, in many cases, by a rail placed half a horse's length off to
keep out cattle from the thorns, offers, indeed, scope for all the
nobler qualities of man and beast, but while sufficiently perilous
for glory, seems to my mind rather too stiff for pleasure.' l ' Most
of the country hereabouts is grass, and in the very centre of the
most formidable tract stands the far-famed Waterloo Gorse.
Blue Covert (supposed to have been planted by the 'Blues'
when last quartered at Northampton), Talliho, Sulby Gorse,

1 Riding Recollections, ch. xiv.

?<jo HUNTING.

Nasehy Covert, and Marston Wood, are all coverts of mark
here.

From Weedon you get grass nearly all round you, and in
the Shuckburgh valley, over which a good fox will probably
take you from Eraunston Gorse, some very big fences. Badby
Wood is the most notable stronghold of foxes in these parts,
and Ashby St. Ledgers, Nobottle Wood, Brampton Gorse,
Harberton Heath, Whitton osier bed (with a nice little brook,
though often found a nasty one, handy), Staverton Wood, and
Buckby Folly, are all rich in the raw material. From Weedon,
too, you may find yourself at Brixworth and try your chance at
' Knightley's leap,' a fenced brook below Brixworth Hill, over
which the late Sir Charles Knightley, on his famous Benvolio,
once covered thirty-one feet of ground. The coverts on the
extreme south, Stowe Wood, Everton Stubbs, &c., are shared
with the Duke of Grafton.

In the Northampton district there are big woodlands, and
more plough than elsewhere. From Sywell Wood to Gib
Wood is almost a continuous chain of coverts, practically mak-
ing one vast wood. Herein foxes disport themselves abun-
dantly, but they are not always to be persuaded to go away as
good foxes should. Round Harrowden and Faxton are the
best and most grassy parts of this district. Near Northampton
the soil is lighter, and this is known as the worst scenting
ground of the country.

The Woodland country, now, as we have said, hunted by a
separate pack, lies mainly between the river Welland on the
west and the Nene on the east. The kennels are at Brigstock,
a central point, and the places from which the best of the
country can be reached are Kettering, Thrapston, Oundle, and
Market Harboro', but the Nimrods at the last place naturally,
save in the early autumn and late spring, prefer their own
open pastures. The Duke of Buccleuch's woods, Brigstock
Forest, the Bulwick Woods, the great coverts of Deene,
Brampton atid Oundle Woods, Carlton Forest, and the Pipwell
Wocds are the most conspicuous of these famous strongholds.

THE SHIRES.

241

For those who can appreciate the joys of this style of hunting,
and that it has a peculiar charm of its own none who have
ever tried it will gainsay, there are few better places to enjoy it
in than the Pytchley Woodlands. There is an unfailing supply
of foxes, even in the northernmost parts where game is strictly
preserved ; the rides are everywhere passable to a stout-limbed
nag, and, as is the wont of woodlands, the deep mysteries of scent

' Luckily with a liberal supply of gates.'

rarely trouble much hounds' noses or men's minds. A gallop
in the open, too, is no unknown thing. Between the Duke of
Buccleuch's woods and Brigstock is a fine piece of grass with
some unconscionable fences, but luckily also with a liberal
supply of gates. Between the woods round Rockingham and
the Welland is again more grass ; while from Cranford Gorse
and Finedon Poplars down to the Nene is an open tract of light
plough and convenient fences. A man who wishes to enjoy
not too violently the genuine sport could hardly do so better
than here. And he need not spend too much money on

242 HUNTING.

horseflesh. ' You may,' observes the sagacious ' Brooksby,' ' if
you like, keep a good horse for Dingley, Rushton, &c., on the
chance of a dive into the outer grass. But for home purposes
and general occasion, something stout and short-legged with
a blood head, and heels well protected (if you can hit upon
such a combination) will carry you well enough. An extra
ten pounds on fair hack action will not be thrown away if you
would hunt far and late.'

On the whole, most people who have tried it will agree
with the same much travelled authority that the Pytchley is a
'superlatively pleasant country,' to ride over. It is less hilly
than High Leicestershire, except for the Hemplow Hills, which
are indeed most painful eminences to confront after a quick
burst ; it abounds both in grass and in foxes ; the fences, though
everywhere big, are, save for the few exceptions indicated, not
impossible for a good horse and man. Lastly, but very far
from leastly, the farmers are with the fox hunters to a man ;
many of them riding well themselves, and all staunch pre-
servers.

243

CHAPTER IX.

THE PROVINCES.

' Rough and various ground. '

ROUND the ' Shires ' lie some dozen or so of packs, with many
of which, save for the name of the thing, it is possible to get
as good sport and as good fun as in those more fashionable
districts ; and some few of which actually do over the same
ground. Whyte-Melville has drawn for his own purpose a very
wide distinction between the ' Shires ' and the ' Provinces,'

R 2

244 HUNTING.

and his Provinces are very Provincial indeed. He has done so,
not in scorn, very far indeed from that ; Whyte-Melville was too
good a sportsman to turn his nose up at the homeliest esta-
blishment in the roughest country in Great Britain, so long as
things were done in a workmanlike manner. But his design
was to accentuate the difference of ideas on the subject of sport
between ' Old Rapid ' and his son. So he describes how the
latter sees his fox run into after seven-and-twenty minutes
without a check over the pick of High Leicestershire, in which
run he has gone first from find to finish. And Papa Rapid
possesses his soul in a real wild hunting run ; in which some
twelve miles of rough and various ground have been covered
in an hour and three-quarters, with only one check to speak
of ; sharing his delights with a ' field ' consisting of Old Mat-
thew (the huntsman), and his one whip, the Vicar, a schoolboy
on his pony, and some three or four strapping yeomen. 1 His
enumeration of the merits of such hunting grounds as a train-
ing school for young sportsmen is worth quoting.

In large woods, amongst secluded hills, or wild tracts of moor
intersected by impracticable ravines, a lover of the chase is com-
pelled by force of circumstances to depend on his own eyes, ears,
and general intelligence for his amusement. He finds no young
Rapid to pilot him over the large places, if he means going ; no
crafty band of second-horsemen to guide him in safety to the
finish, if his ambition is satisfied with a distant and occasional
view of the stirring pageant ; no convenient hand-gate in the
corner, no friendly bridge across the stream ; above all, no hurry,
ing cavalcade drawn out for miles, amongst which to hide, and
with whom pleasantly to compare notes hereafter in those self-
deceiving moments, when

Dined, o'er our claret we talk of the merit,
Of every choice spirit that rode in the run.
But here the crowd, sir, can talk just as loud, sir,
As those who were forward enjoying the fun !

No. In the Provinces our young sportsman must make up his
mind to take his own part, to study the coverts drawn, and find

1 Riding Recollections, chs. xiii. and xiv.

THE PROVINCES.

245

out for himself the points where he can see, hear, and, so to speak,
command hounds till they go away ; must learn how to rise the
hill with least labour, and descend it with
greatest despatch, how to thread glen,
combe, or dale, wind in and out of the
rugged ravine, plunge through a morass,
and make his way home at night across
trackless moor, or open storm-swept
down. By the time he has acquired
these accomplishments, the horseman-
ship will have come of itself. He will
know how to bore where he cannot
jump, to creep where he must
not fly, and so manage his horse
that the animal seems to share

the intentions and intel-
ligence of its rider. If he
can afford it, and likes to
spend a season or two in
the Shires for the last

superlative polish, let him go and welcome. He will be taught
to get clear of a crowd, to leap timber at short notice, to put on

' To creep \vhere he must not fly.'

246 HUNTING.

his boots and breeches, and that is about all that there is left for
him to learn !

And he adds a shrewd fear lest he should ' offend an incalcu-
lable number of good fellows and good sportsmen, were I to
describe as provincial establishments, the variety of hunts, north,
south, east, and west, with which I have enjoyed so much good
company and good fun. Each has its oivn claim to distinction,
some have collar -s, all have sport?

But there are Provinces and Provinces. Such countries as
that in which Squire Rapid was wont to bring his foxes to hand,
with the aid of those incomparable hounds Challenger and
Charmer, are rare now, and grow rarer every day, what with the
march of steam and of intellect. And when found, their beauties
and virtues, which we for our part would be the last of men to
disparage, having indeed both by nature and training, a strong
fancy for the more unfashionable side of fox hunting their
charms, we say, are rather local than general. Born to them,
he, we are inclined to think, would be something of an ass who
should leave them for the more violent and gaudier delights of
the Shires as perhaps Mr. Sawyer may have sometimes thought
when things went wrong with his pretty wife ; for had he stayed
at home, content to triumph over the Nimrods of his native
wilderness, he had never met Miss Cissy Dove. Poor Bromley-
Davenport has, indeed, vowed that he

Counts the swell provincial lower than the Melton Muff;

but the poet, we have the best possible authority for knowing,
is ' a maker of images and very far gone from the truth.' Still,
charming as these few natural nooks and corners of Old Eng-
land are, not many, we imagine, meditating on some pleasant
place wherein to pitch his hunting tent and enjoy his sport with
something less than Meltonian frequency and ardour, and at
something considerably less than Meltonian expense, would
select such a one. As a rule they are 'far from rail and
turnpike road,' and that is a drawback to all hunting quarters
however much of an advantage it may be to all hunting grounds.
But there is plenty of choice for him nearer civilisation. He

THE PROVINCES. 247

need have no difficulty in finding all he wants ; good hounds
and good country, good sport and good company, hunting and
riding, without taking a journey to Corinth. Especially will
he find them in those packs we have already alluded to as
bordering on the Shires ; of some of which it may be fairly
said that if not the rose, at least they have been so long in its
company that only a very nice critic could mark the difference.
Conspicuous among these is the ATHERSTONE, which hunts
about equal parts of Leicestershire and Warwickshire, and a
small corner of Staffordshire. The history of these hounds springs
from sometime in the latter half of last century. The first recorded
date is the year 1793 when Lord Talbot, of Ingestre Hall, sold
his hounds to Mr. Lambton. The first Lord Donegal had pre-
ceded Lord Talbot, and Lord Vernon succeeded him. In the
latter's day the boundaries of the hunt were considerably
enlarged, and orange took the place of the orthodox scarlet
as the uniform of the hunt. But for some time after there
appear to have been four divisions of the country, sometimes
united under one master, sometimes hunted separately on a
system of mutual accommodation. 1 It was in Mr. Osbaldes-
ton's time that the pack received its present name, and the
kennels moved to Witherley where they still stand. Sir Bel-
lingham Graham, Mr. Anstruther Thomson, and Mr. Selby-
Lowndes have been also among the masters. The. present
master, Mr. Oakley, came into office in 1871. The country
as at present established is bounded on the south by the North
A\ r ar\vickshire, on the west by the South Staffordshire, by the
Quorn and the Meynell on the north, and on the east by the
Quorn, Sir Bache Cunard's and the Pytchley. The pick of the
country lies of course on the eastern side, which is well com-
manded by the universal Rugby, and farther north below
Leicester is also some pretty galloping ground. When the
meet is at Brownsoever, Coton House, Bitteswell, or Newnham
Paddox, the ' fields ' are of true Leicester dimensions, the
Quornites and the Pytchley men mustering in great force. The

1 Records of the Cha;e, th. vii.

248 HUNTING.

most central point is Nuneaton, near the kennels, and handy for
all the four days a week on which these hounds take the field.
From Market Bosworth, all and from Leicester, Lutterworth and
Coventry, nearly all the country can be ranged. The last-named
is famous among cavalry quarters, and the gallant young gunner
(of late years Horse Artillery have taken the old cavalry barracks)
whom the authorities may have directed to pass his winter there
will have little cause to grumble, if he be fond of fox hunting.
Altogether the Atherstone is essentially a sporting country.
There is much grass, and such ploughed land as there is, even
in the Birmingham district, about the worst of all, is never very
deep or sticky. There is plenty of jumping. In the greater
part of this country the fences are very small, but very blind ;
some of it, however, is big enough for anybody ; but none is of
that desperate quality one meets with in some other quarters,
in parts of the Belvoir Vale for instance, or round Market
Harboro'. There are plenty of coverts of all sorts and sizes,
from the snug little gorse at Coton to the big woods of
Coombe ; and an excellent supply of foxes.

Due south of this pleasant land lie the two Warwickshire
packs. The southernmost, known as the WARWICKSHIRE, has
a famous history, in which the names of the great John Warde,
and, in county story, the yet greater Mr. Corbet, stand out
with peculiar lustre. The latter reigned for twenty seasons,
from 1791 to 1812. He was not a hard rider, but he had a
rare good huntsman in Will Barrow, and was perhaps the most
popular master of hounds that ever hunted the country. In
his time the principal kennels were at Stratford-on-Avon, but
he had others at Meriden, between Coventry and Coleshill,
handier for the woodlands. Lord Middleton followed Mr.
Corbet and managed matters for ten seasons, and then came
an era of short masterships till 1839 when Mr. Barnard, father
of the present Lord Willoughby de Broke, came into office and
stayed there for seventeen years. Leamington is the great
hunting centre, and famous not only for hunting, as it is the
liveliest and most sociable of all the towns wherein the disciples

THE PROVINCES. 249

of Nimrod do congregate. In the year 1822 the growing
importance of Leamington had already begun to vex the souls
of the good old county families who looked to Warwick as their
capital. A year or two later Mrs. Landor wrote to her famous
son at Florence that the charms of this new watering place were
'driving the gentry away from Warwick.' Between 1830 and
1840 Leamington used to boast itself a rival to Melton, and if
other things than riding to hounds may come into the account,
it was perhaps more than a rival. The steeplechases helped it
much. In the great days of that amusement, when Captain
Becher on Vivian held the pride of place afterwards held by
Jem Mason on Lottery, before the star of Liverpool had risen,
Leamington divided with St. Albans the honours of the flag.
Nor is it only for the Warwickshire hounds that Leamington is
handy. The Quorn, the Pytchley, and the Atherstone, the
Duke of Grafton's, the Bicester, and the Heythrop may all
be reached therefrom. The poorest part of the country is
oddly enough just round about Leamington ; the best on the
Shuckburgh side on the far east, where a deal of riding is
wanted to see what hounds are doing. Banbury and Fenny
Compton are also convenient quarters ; the latter more so for
choice meets, the former, within the Oxfordshire border, as a
place of residence, being by an hour or more nearer to London,
and also containing more human interest. Stratford on the
western side has also its advantages, besides that pre-eminent
one of association with a certain William Shakespeare who
knew the points of a good horse, as he knew everything else,
better than most men. It is also near the kennels, which were
settled at Kineton in the first year of Mr. Barnard's mastership,
on land given to the hunt by Mr. George Lucy of Charlecote
Park another association with the name of Shakespeare. So
keen was the interest taken in the work all along the country-
side that the materials were drawn to the spot by the waggons,
five hundred and fifty-three in all, of one hundred and eighty
farmers. 1 The grass lands of Warwickshire cover about one-

1 Records of tne Chase, ch. vii.

2 co HUNTING.

third of the area ; they are often deep, and the ploughs are not
of the lightest. There is a good deal of timber, and the hedges
are thick and strong ; brooks are not very plentiful nor very
large, though the land is watered by two rivers, the Avon and
the Stour. Lord VVilloughby de Broke, the present master,
hunts five days a week, though four only are in the bond.
Both coverts and foxes are well cared for, and indeed there
are few countries where the old hunting spirit has been better
maintained than Warwickshire, and not many quarters where a
man may quietly enjoy more good sport in pleasant company
than Banbury.

Though a separate pack of hounds has intermittently hunted
the northern portion of the country since the beginning of the
century, that now known as the NORTH WARWICKSHIRE was
not definitely settled, according to 'Brooksby,' till 1853, when
Mr. Selby-Lowndes took the mastership. He only stayed in
the country for two seasons, but Mr. Baker, who followed, held
it till ill-health made him retire in 1862. He showed fine
sport, and so did Mr. Oswald Milne after him for seven seasons,
and then his pack, a particularly good one, passed to Mr. Lamb,
the present master. Birmingham on the north-west, Leaming-
ton on the south, and Rugby on the east mark the boundaries
of this Hunt, which is much smaller than the older branch on
the south ; rougher too, with more woodland and less grass,
and some say, rather fewer foxes. Still near Birmingham there
is some nice galloping ground, and from Hillmorton Gorse
or Bunker's Hill in the Rugby district one of the finest grass
lines anywhere in England. Besides the towns mentioned,
Coventry also comes into play for these hounds.

Besides the Warwickshire packs Banbury also commands
two others of historic repute, the BICESTER and the HEYTHROP.
The first-named can show as fine a record as any pack in the
kingdom, from the beginning of the century when Sir Thomas
Mostyn had them, with the elephantine Stephen Goodall for
huntsman, and when, according to ' The Druid,' upwards of a
hundred hunters were stabled in the little town from which the

THE PROVINCES. 251

hunt takes its name, and 'not a chimney corner was to be let' '
As Stephen weighed twenty stone he was not of much service
when hounds ran fast, which, as a matter of fact, they do not
seem very often to have done in those days. Sir Thomas had
curious theories of breeding, and an almost fanatic aversion to
tongue, which resulted in his hounds at last running almost
mute. Tom Wingfield was a better servant to Sir Thomas
than either Goodall or the ' great Mr. Shawe,' and, among other
accomplishments, he was famous for being the only man able
to keep in order Griff Lloyd, the hunting parson, and a great
character in that country and time. Mr. Drake, the Squire of
Shardeloes, succeeded to Sir Thomas, and the sport grew
faster. Drake has always been a name of mark in this country,
and when the present Squire hunted the country, and his
brothers Edward (a parson, too, but of a different stamp to
Griff Lloyd, and as good in the cricket field as the saddle) and
George were in their prime, it took an uncommon good man and
horse to beat the family. Besides Banbury, the country can be
hunted from Bicester, Buckingham, and Brackley. Bicester is
the most central, being only three miles from the kennels at
Stratton Audley. Leighton and Bletchley are also convenient
spots, especially if you hunt from London, and to one so hunt-
ing there is no good country more accessible than this. Its
stiffest part is in the northern angle running up to Daventry,
sandwiched in between the Heythrop and the Warwickshire on
the west and the Duke of Grafton's and a little corner of the
Pytchley on the east. This is nearly all grass and fenced in
true Northamptonshire style. In the centre lies the Bicester
Vale, grassy too, but less formidable to cross, and separated
from 'the fairest of all hunting quarters,' the beautiful vale of
Aylesbury, by the Claydon Woods on the east, while on the
south lie the deep Oxford woodlands, which are mostly shared
with Lord Macclesfield. Hereabouts the country is rough,
deep, and wild, and bad to cross ; but eastwards towards Brill
a fairer prospect opens, and in the days before Oxford became a

1 Scott and Seb right, ch. v.

252 HUNTING.

dame's school, when Whitecross Green or Islip Town End was
the meet, the undergraduates used to muster strong. All this
part of the country, known locally as the Quarters, is com-
manded from Oxford, but that once great centre of learning,
and other things less convenient, perhaps, but to young minds
not less agreeable, is a little far off for the best of the Bicester.
While in this country, we can hardly leave unnoticed the
WHADDON CHASE pack, better known as Mr. Selby-Lowndes's.
Save for a break of five seasons, when he was with the North
Warwickshire and the Atherstone, the 'Squire' of Whaddon
has hunted this country for over forty years. What the country
is can be said in a very few words it is the Vale of Aylesbury,
immortalised in song by Whyte-Melville, and in speech of
various degrees of eloquence by all who have ever ridden over
its glorious pastures in dry weather. In a deep winter its
charms are more disputable, though indeed no one can deny
their powers of attraction. It is full of brooks, but all, .save the
Addington Brook only, clean fair jumps ; and the doubles of
the Vale are as famous as the ox fences of Market Harboro', and,
in some eyes, as impracticable. No doubt, to ride straight
over this country does require a very good pair ; but, given
the necessary qualifications, it is heavenly the ' Londoner's
Leicestershire,' as ' Brooksby,' invoking 'apt alliteration's artful
aid,' has styled it ; ' one great dairy farm rich pasture from
end to end,' but also, 'one week a springboard, the next it is a
treacle pot.' At its best, however, he truly describes it as 'a
lovely succession of sweet-scenting meadows, from whose elastic
face a horse bounds easily and gladly on to sound firm banks,
to light with equal safety on turf renewed beyond, while hounds
spread out at their fences and carry a broad head from field to
field.' The fences are, as we have said, big, and the doubles
especially take a deal of doing. But if big, they are gentle-
manly ; they are alike from end to end, and you may as a rule
have them anywhere you please all down the line. Conse-
quently there is none of the cramming and pushing for the one
place that so often mars the fun in the Shires ; and though there

THE PROVINCES.

253

is often a crowd in the Vale, there is generally plenty of room
lor it to disport itself, particularly if hounds run fast. ' Brooksby'
describes the sort of nag for this country in more detail than he
generally devotes to such matters, and
though the style of animal that will
carry you in comfort over a strongly
fenced grass country must be pretty

Something to think about
next day.'

much the same all the world over, his description is worth
quoting :

The Vale calls for all the best essentials in a hunter. He must
gallop, he must jump, and he must stay. He need not be an abso-
lute flyer, but he can't be too good ; and it is noticeable that a man
tutored in the Vale is not only likely to ride well over the best of
the Shires, but generally brings thither a stamp of cattle that can
do him credit. Stoutness is a main feature in a Vale horse. Hocks,
quarters, and back are the main points, depth of chest and ribs
indispensable. The length of one type of Leicestershire horse is

254 HUNTING.

out of place. But there are two sorts for Leicestershire, and the
thick one is the better. This is the Aylesbury horse. 1

Leighton and BletchJey are the most handy entrances to
this little Garden of Eden for the Londoner ; Aylesbury and
Winslow are quite as good or better for the country, but not so
convenient for the railway. Christmas Gorse and High Haven
are memorial names, and the line between them to be beaten
nowhere in this mortal vale of ours ; from Aston Abbots,
Creslow Great Ground, or the Addington Coverts, it will be
strange if you get not something to think about the next day ;
from the latter place it may very possibly be the temperature
of the Addington Brook. Mr. Lowndes hunts twice a week,
on Tuesdays and Saturdays, with an occasional by-day in the
woodlands on the north-eastern side. For the last few seasons
he ceased to advertise his meets, owing to the unremunerative
crowds the London trains used to let loose on him ; but he
has latterly gone back to the newspapers. His pack, however,
is maintained by subscription, and if you hunt with it, you are
expected to contribute to its maintenance ; should you forget
to do so, you are pretty sure to be reminded of your forgetful-
ness. The Vale is common ground with the Rothschild stag-
hounds, and in part with the Bicester.

The history of the HEYTHROP centres round two cardinal
landmarks, the figure of Jem Hills, and the fame of the Great
Tar Wood run in Lord Redesdale's mastership. Up to the
year 1835 the country had been hunted by the Dukes of
Beaufort alternately with their home and Badminton district.
In that year the sixth duke found his health was not equal to
the divided duty, and, after some difficulties, a committee of
management was formed, consisting of Mr. Langston of Sarsdon,
Lord Redesdale, and Mr. Mostyn. The hounds were all from
the Badminton kennels, and Jem Hills 2 came from Lord Ducie
to hunt them. Jem was a great character, and 'The Druid'
has gathered a record of his sayings and doing? which puts him

A The Hunting Countries of England, vol. i. p. 362.

2 Jem Hills had been many years Whipper-in to the Badminton Pack, and
consequently knew the Heythrop country well.

THE PRO VINCES. 2 5 5

fis an historic personage quite on a par with the Dick Knights,
Stephen Goodalls, Tom Wingfields, and Tom Ranees of an
earlier day. 1 His style of hunting was peculiar, and it may be
said of it as was said of Charles Payne's with the Pytchley, that
with anyone else it had been impossible. But with him it was
marvellously effective. He was a great rider, and a very fair
cricketer, playing for eight seasons in the Sussex eleven in the
golden days of old Lillywhite. However, we must leave Jem's
biography to 'The Druid,' and get back to the country. Lord
Redesdale, who had been supreme for many seasons, had in
1855 to turn to sterner things. In 1851 he had been elected
Chairman of Committees in the House of Lords, and after
trying to combine the saddle and the senate for four seasons,
he found the work too hard, and made his choice for the latter.
Mr. Hall succeeded, and showed good sport for some years ;
then followed a committee again ; in 1865 Mr. A. W. Hall came
into office and remained there till 1873, when Mr. Albert Brassey
took the hounds, and keeps them to this day. In 1865 Tom
Hills, a nephew of the great Jem, donned the green plush
livery of the hunt, but he had not his uncle's gifts ; and
after four seasons he gave way to Stephen Goodall, who
carried the horn till Mr. Brassey promoted his first whip,
John Hasleton. The Heythrop country, which is about twenty
miles in extent from east to west, and fifteen from north to
south, presents many varieties. The Cotswold uplands, on
the west and north-west, give a light galloping country, with
a very variable scent, which is best in wet weather, fenced
mostly with stone walls, formidable to look at, but easy enough
to surmount for a nag who knows the trick of them. They are
not solid, and there is never a ditch on either side, though you
may occasionally, if a stranger in the land and too adventurous,
find yourself descending into an old quarry. According to
' Brooksby,' the mode of encompassing these obstacles adopted
by an old hunter is not comfortable. He 'will get so near
to a wall that he rises almost perpendicularly, and mutatis

1 Sen Scott and Sebright, ch. v. ,

256

HUNTING.

mutandis as to head and tail descends almost vertically on
the other side. To accommodate yourself to this form of
calisthenics, your body is at one moment lying along his neck,
and at the next it must be thrown back on to the crupper, your
spinal cord being called upon to perform the hinge-action
required.' This form of exercise is undoubtedly laborious,
especially if practised fifty-four times in a single day, as an ' old

' Where Jack the whip in ambush lay.'

Oxonian' has assured our authority once happened to him at
college. But we do not think it is necessary ; at least we
never found it so in the days when we used to disport ourselves
in that country, and though our tale never certainly reached
such prodigious dimensions as that of the 'old Oxonian's'
(though possibly it may have risen to them by the time we can
adopt the same style), we have heard the rattle of the stones

THE PROVINCES. 257

pretty often in our time. On the Gloucestershire side is the
most grass land ; a nice country this, the Slaughter Vale, ovei
which a fox will probably take you from Bruern Abbey or
Gawcombe, being about the cream of it all. Round Heythrop,
where the master lives, Chapel House and Pomfret Castle,
there is also some pretty riding. Bradwell Grove is the great
meet for the stone walls, and here the hounds come regularly
on the first Wednesday of each month to draw Jolley's Gorse.
There were few hunting undergraduates in the old days who
had not hanging on their walls the famous print recording the
humours of a 'Gallop with Jem Hills from Bradwell Grove.'
Tar Wood is down in the southern corner, a common property
with the Old Berkshire. It is a deep heavy wood, and the
country round about is not very engaging. Man, according to
the poet, ' gets no second day,' and we do not know that Tar
Wood has ever renewed its ancient fame; The great run,
immortalised by Egerton Warburton in one of the best of his
hunting ballads, took place on December 24, 1845.

He waited not, he was not found,
No warning note from eager hound,
But echo of the distant horn,
From outskirts of the cover borne,
Where Jack the whip in ambush lay,
Proclaim'd that he was gone away.

And go away he did. The peculiar feature of this run, according
to the hero of the day, Mr. Whippy, 'was the stoutness and
intrepidity of the fox. With the exception of just touching
one corner of Bay's Wood at Cokethorpe, he never once sought
shelter in a cover of any description. The distance from point
to point is from fifteen to sixteen miles, and I am sure the
distance run over must have been at least twenty miles. Time,
one hcur and forty-two minutes.' Well may the poet sing :

When younger men of lighter weight
Some tale of future sport relate,
Let Whippy show the brush he won,
And tell them of the Tar Wood run.

258 HUNTING.

In the Oxford days of the present writer, we used to look with
peculiar veneration at Joe Tollit, who even then could show
many a younger man the way to go, for his share in the glories
of this great day.

The speed of horse, the pluck of man,

They needed both, who led the van ;

This Holmes can tell, who through the day

Was ever foremost in the fray ;

And Holloway with best intent,

Still shivering timber as he went ;

And Williams clinging to the pack

As if the League were at his back ;

And Tollit, ready still to sell

The horse that carried him so well.

But we wander, and must hark back. The Heythrop have
plenty of woodland hunting ; Whichwood Forest and Blenheim
Park on the south-east, and the woods of Stockley, Kiddington,
and Glympton. Hounds are not allowed either in Whichwood
or Blenheim till late in the autumn, so the cub hunting has to
be done in the smaller coverts. Four days a week is the Heythrop
fare, and a frequent by-day, for foxes are plentiful everywhere.
The Monday meets range from Chipping Norton, where the
kennels are, up to the Warwickshire border, and include about
the best of the country. On Wednesday hounds are alternately
on the Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire side. Friday is the
day for the Cotsvvolds, and Saturday for the Oxford woodlands.
Chipping Norton (about three hours and a quarter from Pad-
dington) is the most central quarter ; but both from Oxford
and Banbury the Heythrop can always be reached, though
from the former place you have to go some distance to get
into their best country. Fast and strong horses and quick
jumpers are an essential part of your equipment for hunting
with the Heythrop hounds.

Another pack familiar to all Oxford men is the SOUTH
OXFORDSHIRE, or as they loved best to call it, Lord Maccles-
neld's. His lordship hunted these hounds from 1857 to

THE PROVINCES. 259

1884, when Mr. Charles Morrell took the mastership. En-
circling Oxford in its welcome embrace, this country runs a few
miles farther north-west to Islip, while on the south it joins
Mr. Garth's borders at Marlow. From Henley to Moulsford
it marches westward with the South Berkshire, from Moulsford
northwards to Islip with the Old Berkshire, while on the east
a pretty straight line from Wendover to Marlow divides it from
the Old Berkeley. A small country, it can carry only two days
a week, but it is a most unusual thing if on one at least of those
two days there is not some fun going. The best of the ground
is round about Thame, and that is certainly good enough, for it
is in fact a part of the Aylesbury Vale. South of this little
town, which shares with Oxford the command of the country,
lies the inn of the 'Three Pigeons,' the best of all their fixtures,
with its light grass, its flying fences, and Haseley Brook, name
of delight or fear to many an Oxonian, according to the hydro-
phobic qualities of himself and his horse. In the immediate
neighbourhood of Oxford the country grows worse for riding.
Here are the woodlands, those ' Quarters ' already spoken of.
'Wet, grim woods are these,' says a recent writer, 'dark within
and cold without ; but they make hounds, and they give a certain
amount of sport, though their depths are unfathomable and
their rides bid defiance to a stranger.' Yet there is many a
green spot in this grim district ; one of the best gallops ever
enjoyed by the present writer during his sojourn at Oxford was
with an afternoon fox from Stow Wood.

Directly south of the Pytchley, between the Bicester and
Mr. Lowndes's countries lies that hunted by the DUKE OF
GRAFTON'S hounds. Early in the present century this pack
had quite a character of its own, thus graphically described by
1 The Druid : '

They were rather round than deep in their bodies, had good
legs and feet, were very stout, but wild as hawks. No fox could
live before them if he hung, and they did not change ; but over
the open, when the morning flush was on them, they could not
hold it, and could never pinch him. They ran by ear more than

S3

26o HUNTING.

by nose, and when they got to a ride half the pack would leave the
cry, hop round to the next ride, cock up their ears till they heard
the others bringing it on, and then throw themselves in at his
brush. In the latter days of Joe Smith, Tom Rose hunted them,
and for many years afterwards had the whole control over them.
He bred them much larger but never altered their character. He
was a fine joyous old fellow as ever cheered a hound, and no one
knew 'better what he was about. Being once asked why he bred
his hounds -so wild, 'Why?' says he, ' I'll tell you why. Nine
days out often I am in a wood. Every fox I find I mean to kill,
and these .hounds are the sort that will have him. An open country
and a woodland park are different things. What you call a good
pack will never^catch a bad fox, and as I want to hunt him instead
of his hunting me, I think my hounds best calculated for my
country.' . . . After the old Duke's death, the late Lord South-
ampton took them, and Tom Rose continued to hunt them. They
were kept much in the same form, and with the same result ; in
short, he killed his foxes in the woodlands, and they beat him in
the open. 1

There is plenty of woodland still in this country, which is
not now so large as it was in Lord Southampton's day and
before then, but large enough to give three days a week. But
besides woodland there is grass, and there is plenty of jumping.
Along the northern boundary, marching with the Pytchley, lies
the best of the ground, which only a Pytchley nag and a bold
rider will cross in safety. The north-western part is the best
and grassiest ; here you may gallop westward over the Bicester
borders, or northward over the Pytchley towards Shuckburgh.
On the eastern side, round Towcester and Blisworth, there is
more plough, and the fences are mostly smaller, though in
the Towcester district there are some formidable bullfinches,
regular ' stitchers ' ! In the centre of the country run two
pleasant vales, though rather interfered with now by the railway.
The woodlands lie to the south and east, and are generally
hunted on the Wednesday, Friday being devoted to the central
vales, and Monday to the Northamptonshire quarter. Whittle-
bury and Salsey Forests give, according to 'Brooksby,' 'the

1 The Post and the Paddock, ch. xiv.

THE PROVINCES. 261

perfection of woodland hunting, amid open rides and hollow
glades ; and it generally happens that hounds eventually work
their way into the open,' either through Wicken Spinnies, or
across the Ouse into Mr. Lowndes's country. The kennels are
at Wakefield Lawn, near Stony Stratford, and the latter town,
Weedon, Wolverton, Towcester, Blixworth, and Buckingham
are all convenient for head-quarters. Weedon is the best of
all, for you get from there not only the Duke's, but a good part
of the Pytchley, and the cream of the Bicester and the War-
wickshire. Indeed, it shares with Coventry the pride of place
as winter quarters for the soldier who, in default of sterner
game, delights to employ his superfluous energies on ' the
image of war without its guilt, and only five-and-twenty per
cent, of its danger.'

East and north-east of the Duke of Grafton's country lies
the domain of the OAKLEY, marching with the Pytchley from
Northampton to Higham Ferrers, thence to Huntingdon with
ihe Milton ; turning south and west the line runs along the
Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire borders to Leighton, whence
northward it joins the boundaries of the Whaddon Chase and
the Duke of Grafton's.

Fifty years ago the hounds belonged to the Duke of Bedford.
Next they belonged to the country, who sold them to Mr. Ark-
wright. The latter added to them large drafts from the Belvoir and
Brocklesby, and, by dint of a quarter of a century of skilful breed-
ing, built up a grand pack, which, on his proffering his resignation
four years ago, the present Duke of Bedford purchased from him,
and generously presented to the hunt.

Such is the history of this hunt as lately set forth ; but
' The Druid ' carries the record back to the first decade of
the century, when the Duke of that day took them in hand,
with George Wells for his huntsman. Mr. Robert Arkwright
had hunted the country for six-and-twenty seasons four days a
week till, some six years ago, finding the work too much for him,
he divided it with Mr. T. Macan, he himself hunting the wood-
lands in the northern half twice a week, and his colleague

262 . HUNTING.

keeping to the open for the other two days. The country is
eminently a sporting one, full of foxes and coverts, and of
squires ' hunting from home,' as we have said before, the best
of all supports to a pack of hounds. But it must in truth be
said that as a country to ride over it has many superiors. It
is flat, which is in its favour certainly ; but also it is thickly
wooded, and very thickly ploughed. On the western side from
Newport Pagnell to Northampton there is a fair sprinkling of
meadow land, and on the Kimbolton side you may often get a
gallop into the best of the Fitzwilliam country. But plough is
the prevailing feature, so that a strong short-legged horse is the
animal to bestride ; very fast he need not be, but he must jump,
both big and cleverly, for the fences as a rule are hairy and
trappy. Bedford and Bletchley are the best quarters, while
Starnbrook commands the woodlands, which, it may here be
said, are liberally supplied with rides.

A rare pack is the MILTON, or, as it is more commonly
spoken of, the Fitzwilliam. For over a hundred years it has
been the property of the family of that name, and the
Milton blood ranks with the Belvoir and the Brocklesby as the
best in the kingdom. And a fine large sporting country it has
to hunt over, stretching from Huntingdon and St. Ives on the
south, almost to Crowland on the north. On the west it
marches with the Pytchley and Cottesmore good neighbours
while south and east lie the Oakley, the Cambridgeshire and
the West Norfolk. Like the Oakley, the Fitzwilliam country is
a severe one for horses, wild and deep, the coverts often very far
apart, much wood, and a superfluity of plough. There is also
a particular kind of fence in the south and south-western dis-
tricts ; blackthorn, of abnormal height and density to be sur-
mounted best, say those who know, by that discreet process known
as going round. Yet, though as a riding ground this country
cannot rank high, so good are the hounds, so stout the foxes, so
genuine the condition and general economy of things, that the
Fitzwilliam bears a name second to none in the favour of sports-
men. From Peterborough and Huntingdon the country can best

THE PROVINCES. 263

be reached, both under two hours' journey from London ; and the
former only three miles distant from the kennels at Milton Park.
To many of the meets the hounds have to be carried by rail,
and generally it may be said that a day's hunting with this pack
involves the covering of a good deal of ground. The best of
the country belongs to the Wednesday meets, Lilford, Thrap-
ston Bridge, Bythorne Tollbar, and so forth. A good fox from
Fitchmarsh Warren, Lord Lilford's park, Barmvell Wold, Stan-
wick Pastures, or Catworth Gorse, will nearly always take a
good line southward along the Pytchley border, and possibly
over it. Eastward of Elton again, in the Peterborough district,
there is some fine grass land, and the ploughs about these parts
are less tenacious than elsewhere. Farther east of Peterborough
lie the Great Fens, and if foxes put their heads that way, as they
often do, especially from Holme Wood, you may as well turn
yours homeward ; for there is little to be done there, unless your
nag be web-footed.

To go one by one through all the good packs of Eng-
land and their countries is beyond our scope. ' Cecil ' and
' Brooksby ' have done that for us, and to them we must refer
our readers who still are undecided, or thirst for yet larger
knowledge. In this chapter we have specially confined our-
selves to the best of those which lie within convenient reach of
London ; trying to indicate the quarters where a man, ambitious
of some larger sport than is to be met with among the more
distinctly suburban packs, and yet compelled to be in London
a certain number of days in the week, is likely to gratify his
ambition most reasonably and easily. Many things have neces-
sarily been left unsaid ; many countries left unvisited. Cheshire
and Shropshire, for instance, counties as rich in hunting
memories and hunting realities as any in England. The
' Green Collars ' of Cheshire are as historic as the ' White
Collars ' of the Pytchley or the ' Blue and Buff' of Badminton;
and their historic heroes, the famous old Nestor, Sir Harry
Mainwaring, Tom Ranee, with his ' single eye,' worth many
another's two, Joe Maiden, and many another good sportsman

264 HUNTING.

and fellow have been enshrined for all time in the strains of
Egerton Warburton. Shropshire still cherishes the memories
of Tom Moody (whose mythic fame, however, is by all accounts
very much in excess of his actual merits) and the great ' Trojan,'
Sir Bellingham Graham (the only master of hounds Shropshire
has known not native to the country), and wild Jack Mytton.
Yorkshire has not yet lost the memory of its two idols, Tom
Hodgson and Will Danby, and the breed of horse, hound,
and man, does its best to keep that memory green. The
Brocklesby, the Burton, and the Blankney, still keep up the
fame that Lincolnshire won in the old days of Assheton Smith
and 'the Squire.' A special chapter were all too short fitly to
commemorate the glories past and present of the Badminton
country. The charms of the Blackmoor Vale in his later
years drew Whyte-Melville away from the Shires of his earlier
love : indeed, he has, as it were, thrown down a challenge to the
whole sporting world, by avowing that, were he ' sure of a fine
morning and a safe mount J he would ' ask for no keener pleasure
than an hour's gallop with Lord Wolverton's bloodhounds over
the Blackmore Vale.' A gallop from the Blowing Stone over
the Wantage Vale when Tread well held the horn of the Old
Berkshire will never die out of the memory of him who has been
fortunate even once in his life to experience it especially if
he should have happened during its course to get in the way
of Mr. ' Tom ' Duffield. ' The Druid ' has declared that the
spring hunting in the New Forest is ' charming beyond de-
scription ; ' though his love of the picturesque, at least as much
as of riding to hounds, seems to have played its part in his
rapture. By the light of the ' Stars of the West ' a man may
still see to enjoy his favourite sport, when the fun of falling
has began to pall, and big fences wax bigger with a waning
sight. 1 And so we might go on for ever and ever, hunting
by the 'moonlight of memory,' as the Duke of Rutland's
hounds will hunt so long as there is any light in the sky for

1 See A New Book of Sports (Bentley, 1885) for a capital description of a
day's fox hunting on Dartmoor.

THE PROVINCES. 265

them to see by. But we must make an end, not flattering our-
selves that we have exhausted even that side of the subject we
have approached, but content if, like a finger-post, we have
been of some use in pointing to some of the many roads by
which the sport of fox hunting may be enjoyed.

Pastime for princes ! prime sport of our nation !

Strength in their sinew and bloom on their cheek ;
Health to the old, to the young recreation ;

All for enjoyment the hunting field seek.

Eager and emulous only, not spiteful :

Grudging no friend, though ourselves he may beat j

Just enough danger to make sport delightful 1
Toil just sufficient to make slumber sweet.

266 HUNTING.

CHAPTER X.

HUNTING FROM LONDON.

THE true pleasures of hunting are known only by those who
hunt from home. Not everyone will agree with this statement.
Probably a great many now-a-days perhaps the majority will
strongly disagree with it. Given plenty of good sound grass to
gallop over, good sound fences to jump over, a good sound
horse for partner in these ' violent delights,' and a sufficient
company of human beings to get the better of, what more can
reasonable mortal man require ? Foxes and hounds well, no
doubt they are a part of the fun, though sometimes rather a
troublesome part ; still, if foxes will always be found at home,
and will always run straight, and if hounds will go fast enough
to keep out of the horses' way, they are a part that may be
endured. But where a man lives, what can that matter ? He
only lives to hunt (that is, to ride), so the question should be,
where does he hunt, not where does he live ? If he happens
to live at Melton, or Market Harboro', or Grantham, 01
Rugby, or anywhere contiguous to those famous centres of
civilisation, well and good he must find it precious slow when
hounds do not meet, though of such useless days there are, to
be sure, few in those blissful neighbourhoods. But for the
mere living, what fellow, who is not a fool, would live out of
London ? Very well ; that is one way of looking at things, with
which we certainly do not intend to quarrel. It is purely a
matter of personal taste, and anyone who tries to set up an
arbitrary standard for that is a fool indeed. But, by a parity of
reasoning, we shall stick to our own colours ; nay, and more,

HUNTING FROM LONDON. 267

we shall be much surprised not to find most sportsmen (as
different beings from mere riding men, different even from
mere hunting men) ranged at our side beneath them. The
true pleasures of hunting, we say it again, are known only by
those who hunt from home.

There are many reasons why this should be so, on which
we feel that we could expatiate finely, but will not. One of
them, and perhaps the cardinal one, has been well put by
Charles Kingsley (as genuine in his love of sport as in every-
thing else that becomes a man) in the most charming of his
shorter pieces, ' My Winter Garden.' He is riding through the
fir woods round about Eversley, when he encounters (luckily
he does not head !) a hunted fox, and Mr. Garth's hounds in
full cry after him.

And now appear, dim at first and distant, but brightening and
rearing fast, many a right good fellow, and many a right good
horse. I know three out of four of them, their private histories and
the private histories of their horses, and could tell you many a good
story of them, but shall not, being an English gentleman, and not
an American litterateur. They may not all be very clever, or very
learned, or very anything except gallant men ; but they are all
good enough company for me, or anyone ; and each has his own
speciality for which I like him. That huntsman I have known for
fifteen years, and sat many an hour beside his father's death-bed.
I am godfather to that whip's child. I have seen the servants of
the hunt, as I have the hounds, grow up round me for two genera-
tions, and I feel for them as old friends, and like to look into their
brave, honest, weather-beaten faces. That red-coat there, I knew
him when he was a schoolboy ; and now he is a captain in the
Guards, and won his Victoria Cross at Inkerman ; that bright
green coat is the best farmer, as well as the hardest rider, for many
a mile round ; one who plays, as he works, with all his might, and
might have been a beau sabrettr, a colonel of dragoons. So might
that black-coat, who now brews good beer, and stands up for the
poor at the Board of Guardians, and rides, like the green-coat, as
well as he works. That other black-coat is a county banker, but
he knows more of the fox than the fox knows of himself; and where
the hounds are, there will he be this day. That red-coat has
hunted kangaroo in Australia ; that one, as clever and good as he

268 HUNTING.

is brave and simple, has stood by Napier's side in many an Indian
fight ; that one won his Victoria at Delhi, and was cut up at
Lucknow with more than twenty wounds ; that one has but what
matter to you what each man is ? Enough that each can tell one
a good story, welcome one cheerfully, and give one out here, in
the wild forest, the wholesome feeling of being at home among
friends.

In that last sentence lies, perhaps, the root of the matter,
the wholesome feeling of being at home among friends : the sense
of companionship, the feeling that you are not selfishly enjoying
a solitary pleasure, but are, for the time at least, united by a
common bond with all sorts and conditions of your fellow-men,
among whom you live, with all of whom you are more or less
acquainted, and in whose pursuits and pleasures, habits and
manners, you are more or less concerned or interested. Trojan
and Tyrian, Whig and Tory, here is a common ground on which
all can meet and disport themselves. Surely this is no light
pleasure in these quarrelsome days. And there are other
pleasures, too, less sentimental, if you like, and perhaps to be
more generally appreciated. There is the pleasure, for instance,
of knowing the country well, knowing it in all its varying moods

of

Fresh spring and summer and winter hoar ;

in tasting what Whyte-Melville calls the romance of hunting

The remote scenes we should perhaps never visit for their own
sake, the broken sunlight glinting through copse and gleaming on
fern, the woodland sights, the woodland sounds, the balmy odours
of Nature, and all the treats she provides for her votaries, tasted and
enjoyed, with every faculty roused, every sense sharpened, in the
excitement of our pursuit.

And this, everyone will agree, is a great profit as well as
pleasure. ' When my young hounds are taken out to air,' says
Beckford, ' my huntsman takes them into that country in which
they are designed to hunt. It is attended with this advantage :
they acquire a knowledge of the country, and when left behind

HUNTING FROM LONDON,

269

at any time, cannot fail to find their way home more easily.'
A man has this advantage over a dog, that he can ask the way
when he has lost it : though in certain counties he is by no
means sure of getting a very lucid answer, or indeed, any
answer at all, if the point to which he craves direction be any-
where out of the immediate local sphere of the party interro-
gated. The writer of this chapter was once, many years ago,

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on his way to meet Mr. Garth's hounds at ' The Checquers,' a
public-house on Eversley Green. Being then a stranger in the
land, and having gone about as far as the map had told him he
should go, without seeing any sign of hunting man or beast, or
of that place of entertainment for them to which he was bound,
he asked his way of a passing countryman. A stare, a shake
of the head, and some sounds in an unknown tongue, were all
the answers he could get. So, committing himself into the

270 HUNTING.

hands of the great goddess Diana, he pursued his way, and lo,
within less than a mile, ' The Checquers/ and all things con-
venient ! And yet a public-house, one might have thought,
would have been within the sphere of that native's geographical
knowledge. But indeed the autochthones of those parts are not
of a nimble intelligence. Then, besides these considerations, a
close familiarity with the country hunted over must obviously
be an inestimable advantage to all concerned. From the
heroes of the first flight down to the most persistent son of
MacAdam such a knowledge is a thing greatly to be desired.
To know the safest and easiest, and consequently the quickest,
way from field to field ; to know where man has smoothed and
where he has increased the intricacies of nature, is not to be
despised by the boldest of riders. For though falls will come
and must not be shirked, it is clear that he will cross a country
quickest who does so with fewest falls. And though there are
men happily gifted with an eye for a country such as no fami-
liarity will insure to some, yet this sweet and most necessary
intimacy is not to be gained by the mere bird of passage.

Let us call Whyte-Melville again to the convenience of hunting
from home, as we have called him for the romance.

We require no large stud, can choose our meets, and, above all,
are indifferent to weather. A horse comes out so many times in a
season ; if we don't hunt to-day we shall next week. Compare
this equable frame of mind with the irritation and impatience of a
man who has ten hunters standing at the sign of ' The Hand in
Pocket,' while he inhabits the front parlour without his books,
deprived of his usual society and occupation, the barometer at set
fair, and the atmosphere affording every indication of a six-weeks'
frost !

It is true that in many of our famous hunting towns there
has grown up a little hunting society, which for several reasons,
perhaps, inhabits the same quarters, and some members of
which have possibly built themselves ' lordly pleasure houses,'
and thus in a manner become affiliated to the soil. At Melton
and at Market Harboro' this is particularly the case. At the

HUNTING FROM LONDON. 271

former town this has been so through the century from the
time of Lord Sefton's famous mastership; and 'Nimrod,'it will
be remembered, at the end of his great ' Quarterly ' article, expa-
tiates (or makes ' Snob ' expatiate) in glowing terms on the grand
style in which things were done. One is given to understand,
moreover, that the society in that favoured spot is at this day a
particularly sprightly and entertaining one. Certainly it must
have been so a few years ago, to judge from the racy strains in
which Whyte-Melville has chanted the praises of ' the Monks
that live under the hill.' l And, no doubt, the golden youth of
those happy hunting grounds still live as hard, and ride as hard,
in as gay, if not quite in as grand, style as their fathers who bid
' Snob ' to their board in the evening after they had cut down
him and the ' little bay horse ' over the grass in the day.

But still, this is not quite the same thing as hunting from
home. Of course, these hunting centres are very gay and jovial
places, and the company, both male and female, of the very
best sort, both in the field and at home. Of course, too, to fre-
quent the same place season after season, though it be only for
hunting, and during the hunting season, is a very different thing
from wandering in search of sport, or making London your
head-quarters. But to live in a town for the sole purpose of
hunting ; to hunt every day, and to take flight to London the
moment the hunting is over perhaps at every temporary
cessation is clearly a very different thing from hunting from
your own house, your abiding place. It is, no doubt, a very
good thing in its way, and to gay and vigorous spirits, blended
with plenty of health, leisure, and money, is a most pleasant
and easy way of passing time. But it is not the same thing as
the other form of hunting, whose praises we uphold. Followed
in that fashion, the pursuit of the fox, or whatever the animal to
be hunted may be, becomes a part of the country gentleman's
condition, like his flower garden, his dairy, his fat beasts, and
so on. Hunting in this way, Nimrod is humanised ; his manners

1 See his Songs and Verses.

272

HUNTING.

are softened, and are not permitted to become brutal using
the words, of course, in a Pickwickian sense.

But not to everyone does Diana grant her favours in this
liberal fashion. Putting out of the question those who are
governed by mere whims, there are many whom dire necessity
forbids to take their hunting pleasures from any place but
London. Men of business, to whom hunting is a relaxation ;
who follow it for health's sake ; or from a keen native love of

' Down with you by train on a hunting morning.'

the sport, that not all the smoke and soot, the din and hurry
of great Babylon can quench ; or for the sake of something to
do a little more stimulating than a ride up and down Rotten
Row, or a rubber of whist at their club ; or from whatever cause
you please. Men who are pinned down to this great centre of
gravity, and can leave it, except at the recognised season of
holiday, but for a few hours at a time.

HUNTING FROM LONDON. 273

There are two ways in which hunting can be enjoyed from
London : either by keeping your horses in town and taking them
down with you by train on hunting mornings: or by keeping them
at some hunting centre, and meeting them there or at the covert-
side. Of these two ways, one may say perhaps that the first is
best for yourself, the second for your horse. Both are feasible
enough, but neither, we warn the doubting sportsman, is child's
play. In both you must be prepared to take your pleasure
somewhat seriously, not to say laboriously. In his autobiography
Anthony Trollope gives a vivid picture of the hard work this
form of pleasure entails ; and what Trollope found hard no one
else will find easy, for he, indeed, like Walter Raleigh, could
' toil terribly ' at work or play. He had just returned, in
December 1872, from his voyage to Australia (where he had
experienced some hunting of a novel kind), and though settled in
London was determined not to lose wholly his favourite exercise.

I got home in December 1872, and in spite of any resolution
made to the contrary, my mind was full of hunting as I came back.
No real resolutions had in truth been made, for out of a stud of
four horses I kept three, two of which were absolutely idle through
the two summers and winter of my absence. Immediately on my
arrival I bought another, and settled myself down to hunting from
London three days a week. At first I went back to Essex, my old
county, but finding that to be inconvenient, I took my horses to
Leighton Buzzard, and became one of that numerous herd of
sportsmen who rode with 'the Baron 'and Mr. Selby-Lowndes.
In those days Baron Meyer was alive, and the riding with his
hounds was very good. I did not care so much for Mr. Lowndes.
During the winters of 1873, 1874, and 1875 I had my horses back
in Essex, and went on with my hunting, always trying to resolve
that I would give it up. But still I bought fresh horses, and, as I
did not give it up, I hunted more than ever. Three times a week
the cab has been at my door in London very punctually, and not
unfrequently before seven in the morning. In order to secure this
attendance, the man has always been invited to have his breakfast
in the hall. I have gone to the Great Eastern Railway ah ! so
often with the fear that frost would make all my exertions useless,
and so often too with that result ! And then, from one station or

T

274 HUNTING.

another station, have travelled on wheels at least a dozen miles.
After the day's sport, the same toil has been necessary to bring me
home to dinner at eight. This has been work for a young man
and a rich man, but I have done it as an old man and compara-
tively a poor man.

In giving his preference to ' the Baron ' over Mr. Lowndes,
Trollope, it is to be presumed, meant only to signify that to one
hunting after this fashion the certainty of a gallop of some sort
was the cardinal point to be aimed at He was too good a
sportsman to wilfully prefer riding after the uncarted deer to the
real hunting of the fox. But the fox is an uncertain beast. You
may not find him at home ; and when you do you may not pre-
vail on him to leave it, or at any rate to leave it in such a way
as will conduce most to your pleasure. A blank day, or a day
spent in pottering about from covert to covert with a cold scent,
or in splashing up and down knee-deep in muddy woodlands,
are clearly things to be avoided if possible by one who has
travelled far for his fun and has not many hours to spare for it.
By agreeing to satisfy yourself with such imitation of hunting, as
the pursuit of the paddock- fed deer provides, you do avoid such
things. You are sure of your game at any rate, and sure of a gallop
of some sort, even if it be mainly along the hard high road which,
however, is a contingency much rarer with the Rothschild than
with the Royal pack. Again, the Staghounds meet at a later
hour, the Queen's and Lord de Rothschild's at 11.30, the Mid
Kent at 1 2 : and of course the fun is over much sooner. The
hours, therefore, both of one's going and coming are more
convenient A train, for example, leaves Euston at 9, which
lands you at Winslow at 10.32. Tring you can reach at 10.19,
starting a quarter of an hour later ; the same hour serves for
Aylesbury, where you will arrive at 10.50, while Leighton can
be reached at 10.24 by the 9.30 train. Every Tuesday and
Friday, the days on which the Queen's hounds hunt, the Great
Western Company run a special train to the station nearest to
the place of meeting, which is never very far off. Maidstone,
Tunbridge and Mailing, are the towns most convenient to the

HUNTING FROM LONDON. 275

Mid Kent, whose kennels are at Wateringbury, near the first-
named place. They hunt on Wednesdays and Saturdays, meet-
ing at noon. The most persistent, then, of sluggards can enjoy
the pleasure of the chase as provided by these packs without
doing violence to his feelings. The others, such as are within
easy reach of London, the Berkhamstead, Hon. H. Petre's,
Surrey, and Warnham, do not advertise their fixtures, and do
not possibly care very much for flying visits from strangers and
pilgrims a sentiment which seems to be growing rather popular
in most counties. For the Surrey, Red Hill and Croydon are the
handiest stations, to both of which there is a plentiful supply of
trains from Victoria, Charing Cross, and London Bridge. The
Warnham pack, hunting three days a fortnight over the same
country as the Crawley and Horsham Foxhounds, can be
reached from Horsham, Dorking, and Cranleigh, which in their
turn may be reached without any preternatural activity in the
matter of early rising. Chelmsford, Ingatestone, and Ongar, are
most convenient for the Hon. H. Petre's, which hunt on Tuesdays
and alternate Saturdays, and a gallop over the Essex Roothings
after these hounds is much thought of by those who have ex-
perienced its delights, which unfortunately we never have. The
Berkhamstead hunt but once a week, on Wednesday, and
can be reached best from Great Berkhamstead, St. Albans, and
Tring, Of all these packs, Her Majesty's and Lord de Roths-
child's alone are not dependent on subscribers, a fact which their
visitors will do well to bear carefully in mind

Of Foxhounds the Londoner has a liberal choice. Within
easy reach of head-quarters are the Essex and the Essex Union,
the Surrey and the Surrey Union, the West Kent, the Burstow,
the Old Berkeley, and the Hertfordshire. Mr. Garth's, the
Crawley and Horsham, the Puckeridge, the East Essex, the
Wickham, and Mr. Goodman's lie a little farther afield, but
still handy enough to those who do not insist on the ' primrose
path' of sport. Indeed, if you only get up early enough
(though in that only, to be sure, lies the rub), and are not
forced to study economy in the matter of railway tickets, there

276 HUNTING.

is no reason why you should not enjoy your gallop (at least
take your chance of a gallop) with the Old Berkshire, the South
Berkshire, the Bicester, the Heythrop, the Duke of Grafton's,
and Mr. Selby-Lowndes's, nay, no reason why you should
not penetrate into the very Shires themselves. By leaving
King's Cross at 7.45 you can reach Grantham at 10.35, an( ^
a train from the same station starting half an hour earlier
will land you at Melton at 10.32. Leaving Euston at 7.30
you reach Rugby at 9.34 ; leaving St. Pancras at 8.10, you
reach Market Harboro' at 10.44. I n short, if you do not
mind, as we have said, taking your pleasure somewhat labo-
riously, you may get plenty of hunting, and plenty of good
hunting, without ever passing a winter's night away from your
London home. But, certainly, if not sorrow, it is labour. It
is not only the early rising ; though that alone, on a dark winter's
morning when the water is of dubious warmth, and the fire
probably will do nothing but smoke, in sullen protest against its
unseasonable lighting, does indeed entail something of a struggle
on this poor frail human flesh. To dress by candlelight is never
an enlivening process, and when the dress is such as men go a-
hunting in, it is often little short of misery. To button those
knee-buttons, and tie those natty little bows below them, by
the uncertain light of a candle, and with blue fingers senseless
with cold ah ! my friend, nate mecum Consule Manlio must
one not be very fond of the game, indeed, to bear these matu-
tinal ills without repining more than once? But these are,
after all, mere sensual sorrows. The man who would grudge
to give his morning sleep for a gallop over the grass is unworthy
the name of a sportsman and a Briton ! But these desperate
hours signify long marches into the bowels of the land ; they
signify long journeys by train, and they in their turn signify
much disbursement of moneys, and much wear and tear of flesh,
both human and equine. Nothing sooner tires a man, body
and brain, than long and frequent railway journeys. Indeed,
one might say that no man, unless he be of cast-iron nerves,
can stand them long when once he is past the first vigour of

HUNTING FROM LONDON. 277

manhood, especially if he be one who lives by brain-work. It
is burning the candle at both ends, and we all know how
dangerous a game that is. A youngster, some gallant guards-
man, perhaps, quartered in London, or some sprightly young
stockbroker, may dash down once or twice a week to Melton
or Grantham, have his gallop, and dash back again with im-
punity. But older men will be wise to take their delights less
violently. And, indeed, in reason they will probably do so.
For a man who can afford the drain on his purse inevitable
from such a form of hunting, will hardly be so much a bonds-
man to Necessity as to be compelled to live regularly in London.
Let us suppose, then, that our Londoner has agreed with
himself to pursue the fox soberly : he has, as we have shown,
plenty of choice. If he choose to hunt with Mr. Garth, he
will find as good a pack of hounds as any in England, a pleasant
set of comrades, plenty of foxes, and genuine sport, if his ideas
of fox hunting be not bounded by grass fields and flying fences.
These hounds hunt four days a week, meeting at eleven, and
can be reached best from Reading, Wokingham, and Bracknell.
The two Surrey packs are good, but their country is bad, and
the same must be said for the East Kent and Wickham. The
West Kent have a terrible lot of woodland, but get sometimes
into a nice bit of country round Penshurst. The Essex country,
which is much given over to plough, and generally is not an
engaging tract of land to ride over, except in the Roothings,
can be commanded best from Harlow, Chelmsford, and Audley
End. The Crawley and Horsham show good sport in Sussex,
hunting four days a week, and meeting at eleven mostly,
though sometimes a little later. Horsham and Steyning are
the most convenient stations for their fixtures. The Old
Berkeley are now united under Mr. Hardinge-Cox, who has
taken the two countries, hunted to the end of '84-85 by Mr. A.
H. Longman and Mr. A. Mackenzie ; the latter has taken his
own hounds to the Woodland, Pytchley, vice Lord Lonsdale,
who has taken his hounds to Blankney. They are to hunt four
days a week. To meet them, Amersham, Slough, and Aylesbury,

278 HUNTING.

Watford, Rickmansworth, and Hemel Hempstead are con-
venient points of departure. The Hertfordshire can be reached
four days a week, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and
Saturday, from Luton, St. Albans, and Hitchin ; the Pucke-
ridge, on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, from Bishop
Stortford and Hungerford. With the Burstow one may
hunt twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday, getting to
them best from Reigate, East Grinstead, Horley, and Eden-
bridge. Of all the packs to which we are at present limiting
ourselves, this is perhaps the most favoured in the matter of
country. Indeed, the members of that hunt have a saying,
that if a horse can go in their country, he can go anywhere.
We have thus very slightly indicated where a Londoner, bent
on a moderate participation in the pleasures of fox hunting,
may turn his head with the best chance of getting what he
wants. For further particulars we must refer him to ' Brooksby's '
'Hunting Counties of England,' Stanford's Hunting Maps, an
excellent article on ' Hunting from London ' in ' Baily's Maga-
zine' for February 1884 (to the unnamed writer of which we
hereby tender our best acknowledgments), and to the expe-
riences of his own friends.

The question remains, in what style will he elect to take his
hunting ? Will he keep his horses in London and carry them
backwards and forwards with him by rail, or will he settle them
in quarters at the town most convenient to the fixtures of the
pack with which he intends to hunt ? Much can be said for
either plan, much against it. Let us take the former first

The advantages of this course are clear. His horses will
be under his own eye, and he will be able to vary his country
at his pleasure. On the other hand, he will have to make an
earlier start ; unless, of course, he sends his hunter down with a
groom, and himself follows with a hack by a later train, or even
sends horse and man down the day before ; both of which plans
will obviously swell the expenses not a little. If he go down
with his horse he must necessarily, unless the place of meeting
be very close to the station, start in good time, to allow of that

HUNTING FROM LONDON. 279

gentle pace at which it is expedient for the hunter to travel on
his own legs in the anticipation of a long day's work. This,
however, is a matter which concerns the man only, and is con-
sequently of much less moment. What does concern the horse
is the railway journey. On some horses a journey by rail has
no more effect than on some human beings. On others it has
a most injurious effect, both on their nerves and their temper.
It is almost inevitable, too, from the confined space in which
the horse is necessarily penned during the journey, that a
certain stiffness will be visible when released at its end. If,
however, he is a sedate and even-tempered beast, this will pass
away soon enough when he' breathes the fresh air and stretches
his limbs ; and if he is not that, he had better be got rid of
quickly, for he will be of little use in this game. It must be
remembered, too, that an early start signifies for the horse very
much more than for the rider. The process of dressing and
feeding means much more for the former than the latter. The
rider can be trusted to look after himself in these things ; the
horse is dependent on his groom. Who is to insure the latter
rising early enough on hunting mornings to have these indis-
pensable preliminaries properly performed at the proper time,
not huddled hastily over at the last possible moment? Of course,
it may be said that if an owner of hunters cannot trust his
groom, he had better give up the business of hunting alto-
gether. And this, no doubt, is so. But this mode of hunting
is an exceptional thing, rather out of the common routine of
the stable ; the possibilities of shirking are much increased, and
groom's flesh is weak. You may be lucky enough to get one of
those pearls who take a pride in their work, men of inexorable
conscience and a high sense of duty, who need no master's eye
upon them. But you may not ; and at least, this objection
must be taken in the balance for and against

Then, there is the return journey. Never, if it can possibly be
avoided, should you ride your horse straight from the field to the
nearest station, and have him put just as he is into a box to
catch the first train home. He should first be roughly dressed

28o HUNTING.

down, his legs and feet dry-rubbed and bandaged, and his inner
horse mildly refreshed with a mouthful of gruel. Where there is
a station there is sure to be some stable accommodation sufficient
for your purpose ; but it is not so sure that you will find an
ostler equally sufficient. To make a tired and dirty hunter
comfortable for his journey home requires no great intelligence
or labour ; but you will be wise to superintend matters your-
self, and the judicious suggestion of a pot of beer has sometimes
a stimulating effect. The country ostlers are a pretty hard-
worked class, and perhaps, considering all things, can scarcely be
expected to bestow much additional labour on mere pilgrims
whom they may never see again. Particularly will you be wise
not to trust the gruel to the tender mercies of the inn servants.
See that the flour is put in boiling water and cooled with cold
water, not stirred up with cold water and then qualified to the
proper temperature with hot water ' to taste.' A quart of good
beer, or a wineglass of whisky, after a hard day, may be added
with advantage. Of course, if you can insure returning to your
starting point and if you have self-denial enough to leave off
your fun in time, there should be no difficulty in your arranging
this, save in very exceptional cases all these obstacles will vanish
in the presence of your own servant, whom you will do wisely to
take down with you, without whom, indeed, you will hardly do
well on these journeys. However learned you may be in theory in
the care and management of horses, in practice you must in-
evitably be more or less at fault. You have never been taught
to groom a horse ; the groom has been. You know what
things should be done, the groom knows how to do them.

Again, there is the problem of exercise. How are hunters
stabled in London to be kept in proper condition ? How are
they to be exercised in the London streets ? There is Rotten
Row to be sure, where grooms are allowed to disport themselves
on their master's nags before 7 A.M. from April to October,
and before 8 A.M. from October to April.

Thus, it will be seen, there are many things to be said
against keeping your hunters in London ; indeed, so many

HUNTING FROM LONDON. 281

that the despairing sportsman may well cry to us in the words
of Rasselas to Imlac, ' Enough, you have convinced me that
no human being can ever keep hunters in London.' That we
do not say. But it is a difficult business ; one with many
hindrances and limitations. And it is at least well that he who
proposes to undertake it should do so with his eyes open. A
season of practice will show him these difficulties far more
clearly than we can, and probably introduce him to many other
lesser ones which we have not considered. But though ex-
perience is certainly the best of all schoolmasters, the fees, as
some sage has wisely said, are apt to be heavy.

No particular difficulty seems at first sight to lie in the way of
the other plan. To select your head-quarters, place your hunters
in a good stable, and have yourself conveyed down to them by
train on hunting days, seems a simple plan enough. And so it
is, provided the stable be under the care of a groom whom you
have proved worthy of your confidence. But that is the rub.

If you place your horses at livery, where they will be among
many others requiring equal care and attention, it is clear you
must trust largely to the honesty and good faith of the stable
keeper. Probably you will pay about thirty shillings a week '
for each horse, exclusive of 'extras,' which are apt to have
limits of astounding elasticity. The prices of forage vary, of
course, but at any season if the best kinds are used it is obvious
that the margin of profit out of thirty shillings will not be
large, and the temptation to supply something not quite so
good as the best, will be. Of course a man who has to cater
for a large number of horses will be able to get his forage
cheaper than he who has to buy it in smaller quantities. Whole-
sale, as we all know, is cheaper than retail. But ' margins ' there
must be ; if they will not come by nature, they must be
forced by art. Then there is the grooming. The staff of
a livery-stable keeper is a hard-worked body of men. Two
hunters are quite as much as one groom can do justice

1 Twenty-six shillings a week was charged at the Hunt Hotel, Leighton
Buzzard, during the season '84-85. EDITOR.

282 HUNTING.

lo. It is most probable that in a large establishment, of
the sort we are considering, this proportion will be consider-
ably exceeded ; or, if kept, will be kept by the employment of
an inferior class of servant, casual helpers, men of odd jobs,
who prefer beer to elbow-grease, and regard an inn rather as a
place to take their ease than to work in. If you place a groom
of your own in charge, he will live, it is almost certain, in a
perpetual feud, at any rate in a state of more or less armed
neutrality, with the keeper of the stable. It must not, of course,
be forgotten that we are now playing the part of the advocatus
diaboli. We are putting every possible objection in the strongest
possible light. But we are very far from saying that to all livery
stables, or even to the majority, these objections apply either
wholly or in part. No doubt there are many to be found up
and down England all that the most exacting could desire ;
stables where your horses will be as well fed, as well groomed,
as well exercised, and generally as well cared for, as they would
be in their own stable at home. But such perfect places are
not likely to be common ; perfection is common nowhere
among human institutions, to say nothing of equine. You will
at least be wise to stand prepared for troubles : and this perpetual
watching and waiting for troubles, what a trouble is it in itself !
To have your own private establishment is, of course, the best
plan. If you can trust your groom to carry on matters as well
thirty or fifty miles off as though he were only round the
corner and liable to visits from the master at any moment,
there is really nothing to be said against this plan that cannot
with equal justice be said against the keeping of a hunting
stable at all. It will of course be cheaper, too, than carrying
your horses about on the rails with you ; for to the ordinary
cost of a hunting establishment you will have only to add your
own travelling expenses. Provided stable and groom are all
they should be, your horses will last much longer treated thus.
The strongest constitution and most even temper ever enjoyed
by a member of the equine race will not long stand the wear
and tear of those frequent rattlings over the rails, and all their
inevitable discomforts and mischances.

HUNTING FROM LONDON. 283

There is a third way in which hunting may, after a fashion,
be enjoyed by a man compelled to a life in London ; he may
'job.' There are men, of course, in all the great hunting
centres, in all towns of any importance situate in a hunting
country, whose business it is to provide the casual sportsman
with a beast on which to take his pleasure with the hounds.
It would be unfair to say that many a good day's hunting
is not enjoyed in this way. The writer's own experience of
hired hunters is confined to the livery stables of Oxford, and
many a good run has he enjoyed */ militavit non sine glortd
with a partner derived from those sources. But the under-
graduate is a thing apart; he forms a human class by himself,
and affords no instance to inductive philosophy. The beasts
on which the ' men ' of the present writer's time used to
disport themselves so gaily and frequently with the Heythrop,
the Bicester, the Old Berkshire, or Lord Macclesfield's hounds,
were often wondrous to look upon, and unlike most recognised
specimens of horseflesh. To be sure, they could all of them
jump, and some of them gallop ; but it is doubtful whether any
but an undergraduate would have trusted himself to their
conveyance. The wind, however, is always tempered to the
lamb ; and elsewhere, no doubt, the horse may be hired and
ridden with no, or few, misgivings. They may be hired for the
season, the month, or even the day, and as the owner generally
runs all risks of accidents, and relieves the hirer of all trouble,
it is clear that this is at least an irresponsible way of hunting.
Perhaps for a sportsman of limited means, who can allow him-
self but a day now and again, it is the one that presents least
hindrance of any. If he be moderately young, of moderately
light weight, and of moderate confidence, he might certainly
do worse than trust himself to some stable keepers of good
repute. The charges vary, of course, with the reputation of the
stable, the country, and the hounds. For a couple of guineas,
however, a decent nag may generally be secured for a day's
gallop in most counties. In the Oxford days, of which we have
spoken, the charge for the term was four guineas a week. For

284 HUNTING.

this sum you became practically possessed of a hunter of your
own ; the stable keeper running all reasonable risks, supplying
the nag's place if disabled (unless by some glaring fault of your
own), keeping him, and finding all necessary service. What
the charges may be now we do not know ; but we have heard
the stables at Oxford are now filled mainly with bicycles, which
of course are much less expensive to keep.

It may be thought that we do not think much of ' hunting
from London,' nor are keen to recommend it to our friends.
This is not quite so. It is certainly a laborous form of amuse-
ment, if pursued with ardour, and one which, we repeat, pre-
supposes youth, health, and a strong constitution at least,
without these good gifts we certainly should advise the
Londoner if possible to content himself with some other form of
exercise. It is costly also ; but then hunting is in no form a
cheap amusement, except if enjoyed after the fashions adopted
by Mr. Sponge and Mr. Facey Romford. Still, if a man sets
most store on fresh air and a wholesome exercise he will no
doubt find what he wants in the hunting fields round about
London, with pleasant company, and sport of a kind ; and he
T/ill find these things without any undue labour or exertion,
whether he stable his horses in the country or carry them
backwards and forwards on the rail. But if his ambition soars
higher, he must go farther afield. If he wish to gallop and
jump, has an aversion to plough ; if, in short, it is riding to
hounds that he understands by the term hunting, he will not
be satisfied by the suburban delights of his mote modest and
moderate neighbours. Then comes the real hard work
hie labor, hoc opus est. It can be done ; but it is no rose-water
fun. ' Brooksby,' of whose excellent little guide-books we have
already spoken, argues that it is just as easy to hunt in a good
country as in a bad. ' A horse,' he says, ' eats no more in a
good country than in a bad one ; hotel and stabling charges vary
on quite other principles (we know not what) than those of
locality ; in no country are you likely to ride a worse horse if
you can afford a better ; the best saddle is everywhere

HUNTING FROM LONDON. 285

economy ; and you ought to have (why on earth don't you ?)
good leathers, decent boots, coat and hat, ivherei'er you hunt.'
All this is, no doubt, very true ; but it does not really touch on
what seems to us the gist of the argument. A man who could
afford to keep at one of the great hunting centres a stud suffi-
cient to enable him really to enjoy their advantages, would
hardly, we submit, find himself bound by necessity to reside
for the greater part of the week in London. Were he so
bound, it would surely be an idle waste both of money, time,
and ' tissue,' to incur the expense and the labour of keeping
his horses at such favoured spots for with all due respect to
' Brooksby,' it is more expensive to hunt from Melton than from
Brentwood say, or Windsor and suffering the long journeys to
and fro, for the chance of a gallop once or twice a week. A
man whose work keeps him mainly in London, and yet has the
means to afford a few hunters in the country, is probably no
longer a young man ; and we repeat, the inevitable railway
journeys must sooner or later tell on the human frame which
has no longer the capital of youth to draw on, and in all pro-
bability sooner rather than later. There are exceptions, of
course, to every rule. There are men who, for some particular
cause, may find themselves obliged for a season, or part of a
season, to keep touch of London. They, of course, will take
their pleasure as best pleases them, and as they can best afford.
But for the average of men who 'hunt from town' we should
certainly recommend a moderate ambition. Indeed, if he elect
to keep his horses in London he will find himself obliged to
be so content, unless he be prepared for his stables to need
renewing as fast as Russian 'arrangements.' And we should also
recommend him, if he keep his horses in the country, always
when possible to go down to his quarters over-night. The
additional expense of a bedroom will not be excessive ; he
can always, save in very exceptional circumstances (and in such
it would perhaps be best to put the hunting by for a time), get
his day's work over in time for an evening train ; he will find
his own comfort greatly increased; and he will last much longer.

286 HUNTING.

CHAPTER XI.

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS.

BY man and all living creatures, from the worm in the ground
to the eagle in the air, the advent of spring is hailed with a
welcome and joy accorded in a like degree to no other period
of the year.

Nature is then waking up from her winter sleep, and, laying
aside her snow-white robes, is invoking the sun to expedite her
toilet, that soon, like a May queen, she may step out in a
mantle of emerald hue, bespangled with gems of purple and
gold the primrose, the cowslip, and wild hyacinth till her
beauty becomes a delight to the eye no art can rival. Early
and late, too, is her coming greeted by a choir of heaven-born
minstrels, who pour forth their paeans of joy in copse, wood-
land and field with sweetest melody. But, gladsome and
sympathetic as all the world appears to be at this hopeful
period, it may sound strange to say that probably the sole
created being who supplies an exception to the general joy is
to be found in man. Yet this is truly the case ; for the lan-
guage of the often quoted huntsman, when his hounds threw
up on a bank of violets and failed to carry the scent a yard
farther, still finds an echo in the breast of many such men under
like circumstances.

The experience of every hunting man will remind him that
oft on a genial April day, when the lark has been carolling
overhead, and the wood anemone, the daisy, and the primrose
were weaving at his feet a mosaic carpet, far more beautiful in
design than ever graced a Pontiffs hall, he has heard growls of

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 287

discontent loudly expressed around him, the flowers have been
eyed with a cold welcome, and the lark's glorious song greeted
with anything but pleasure.

It was just at this season of the year, not very long ago,
that a group of well-mounted horsemen were posted at a point
commanding a broad green avenue that stretched away far as
the eye could see into the depths of Whittlebury Forest. They
were listening with evident impatience to a pack of hounds
which, throwing their tongues intermittently, were unable to
force their fox beyond the 'quarter' in which they had found
him an hour before. In fact, there was no scent ; and some of
the older hands, with good reason suspecting that a vixen was
afoot, were anxious to whip off the hounds and draw for a fresh
fox. Favoured by Nature the little mother dodged about,
leaving scarcely a whiff of scent behind her ; the hounds
dropped their noses in vain ; and the field, now utterly discon-
certed, came to a general verdict that ' those spring flowers '
were the chief cause of all the misery.

'It's all up with hunting, at least for this season,' exclaims
a young squire, somewhat impatiently ; ' but what on earth is
a fellow to do for the next six months of his life ? I hate town,
and I'm sick to death at sea; and as for the "contemplative
art " river angling I have neither skill nor patience for that
craft, of all others the most solitary and uncertain. So, without
occupation, and never a hound's note to cheer me, I shall be
bored to death before the first of next November.'

* Nay, my boy ; I don't see why we should lose you on
that account,' answered an old friend, who happened to be a
Devonshire man much given to otter hunting. ' Come down
to us, and if Collier and Cherriton don't keep you alive, and
happy too, with a feast of sport throughout the summer, I shall
be surprised indeed. Otters are to be found in every Devon-
shire stream ; and with no animal of chase is the instinct and
work of hounds so well displayed as in the pursuit of the otter.
Why, we have men with us who find hunting so conducive to
their health that, with staghounds, foxhounds, harriers and

?88 HUNTING.

otter hounds, they contrive to enjoy it all the year round ; and
you could well do the same.'

' Thank you so much ; that's quite a new light to me, and
is exactly what I should like to do ; but give me a word of
advice as to the best quarters for otter hunting, and I'll lose no
time in paying a visit to your favoured land.'

' That I'll do with much pleasure,' responded the old otter
hunter, delighted to help a youngster who, from his inborn
love of hounds, he felt sure would enter well at his own
favourite sport. 'Tiverton for otter hunting should be your
first halting place ; and thence you could easily reach the early
and best meets of two good packs those of Mr. Collier and
Mr. Cherriton who would not only give you a hearty welcome,
but, if I mistake not, would very soon ask you to " look below "
and lend a watchful eye to the business of the chase. But I
would not recommend you to fix on any settled quarters for
more than a week or so at a time ; you should lead a kind of
nomad life, passing on from one district to another according
to the meets of the various packs hunting the Western counties
Thus, weather permitting, you might safely reckon on getting
three days a week, from May i to the end of August ; then, to
complete the cycle, you should migrate to Porlock and top up
the year by enjoying a gallop with the staghounds over the wild
Exmoor. But hark ! the hounds are running hard ; that must
be a dog fox, and we shall lose perhaps the run of the season
if we stand gossiping here any longer.' So saying, the old
otter hunter dashed off into a narrow ride, making a signal to
his young friend that he'd let him know more about it at an
early date.

He was as good as his word. The younger sportsman was
entered to other hunting and followed many packs of famous
otter hounds. At length he became so devoted to the sport
that, having ample means to do so, he determined to start a
pack of his own, and hunt on the south coast of Devon a
number of maiden streams abounding in trout and of course
visited by otters, but as yet unstained by a single hound.

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 289

With this object in view he appealed once more to his old
friend, who, from a journal he had carefully kept, noting not
only his own sport but that of several well-known packs, now
cordially gave him the result of his long experience embodied
in the following paper :

That you are going to start a pack and hunt the wild otter
with your own hounds is a bit of news that interests me greatly,
and you are quite welcome to the benefit, as you are pleased
to term it, of any counsel I can give you on so engrossing a
subject. But pray bear in mind that this paper will simply be
a kind of didactic essay written to instruct rather than amuse
you ; and moreover, that you are by no means bound to adopt
your mentor's views when, as his judgment may often be in error,
to differ from it would be the wiser course.

No man can hunt a wild animal with success if he is not
fairly acquainted with that animal's habits and mode of life ;
he must at least know where to look for him, how to find him,
and how to cope with him, when found, in the many artifices
he will adopt to elude pursuit. Now, the ways of an otter I
believe to be the least known and the most inscrutable of all
our wild animals ; so much so that its very existence is widely
doubted in districts where otter hounds are never seen ; and
yet every river in the land pays tribute in turn to this night-
wandering marauder. Many too, who ought to know better,
think the otter to be well nigh exterminated, and that its fate
will soon be that of the beaver and yellow-breasted marten,
now no longer seen amongst us. But there is no ground what-
ever for this belief ; otters, as I will presently show by testimony
of unquestionable authority, are still as plentiful on our waters
in the present day as they were fifty or sixty years ago.

When I first took to keeping a pack of my own I hunted a
number of streams on which the note of an otter hound had
never been heard. They were a scratch lot, consisting of big
old-fashioned, blue-mottled harriers and a single foxhound,
called Midnight, by John Russell's famous Mercury out of his

u

290 HUNTING.

Rally, the only hound amongst them that would touch the
scent. But she was a jewel, and with her pleasant tongue soon
won several of the others to join her on the trail. Yet not till
:he wild animal was actually found and killed before them
would the farmers believe that it was the scent of an otter the
hounds were so enjoying. ' There be scores of rats hereabouts,
but us ha' never seed no sich varmint as an otter in our
bottoms,' was the constant remark expressed on the veracity
of dear old Midnight's tongue ; a hound that never told a lie
in her life. One day she carried a trail through a farmer's
cabbage garden and into a drain under his very house, when
a fine dog-otter, soon killed, opened his eyes and at once
satisfied his doubts.

I mention these circumstances to show how little is known
to men in general of the habits and even the existence of this
wild animal, which not only lives and thrives among us, but
constantly makes his bed on the dry ledges of our house drains,
fellow-lodgers with ourselves and sharing the shelter the same
building affords to both.

Human nature, we know, is little inclined to believe what
it cannot see or realise ; and doubtless the otter and his habits
are mysteries to most men, inasmuch as he is strictly a nocturnal
animal, never quitting his stronghold, except by expulsion, till
after sunset, and then only to seek his prey and disappear again
with the first blush of morn. Then, at night, if intruded on by
man, the dark colour of his hide conceals him from view, while
at the same time so oil-like and gentle are his movements in
the water that it would require a fine ear indeed to note his
whereabouts. Not once that I can remember do we see the
otter referred to in the works of our great fabulists, from ^Esop
and Phsedrus down to La Fontaine and Gay ; and yet, from
the lion to the mouse, all the beasts known to them have their
characteristics described with the utmost fidelity. This surely
is strong, if indirect, evidence that they knew nothing of the
otter and his habits. But I will go farther ; our keenest
hunters, men who have pursued the animal with hound and

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 291

horn and studied his ways from youth to old age, are prone to
confess that much pertaining to the beast is beyond their ken
and utterly inscrutable.

Still, such men by patient and watchful observation have
learned enough to enable them not only to find and hunt the
animal successfully, but to enjoy themselves and show their
friends a sport the wildness and delight of which no pen of
mine can describe.

The otter has no local attachment, like the badger, the fox,
or the hare ; but, as an experienced otter hunter once told me,
he ( believed that, except in the case of a female and her young
ones, an otter never occupied the same bed two days following,'
meaning that he is always on the tramp, seeking fresh pools
and new streams from night to night. However true this may
be, it is nevertheless a fact that on quitting one lodging for
another, like old travellers, they have always a house of call
in their eye a safe well-known retreat on which they are
bent for rest and security at the far end of their night's
work.

An otter, when bolted from his sleeping quarters, will make
at once for the nearest stronghold, and so on from one to
another, till he has shown his observant pursuers all the drains
and holts he is wont to frequent on that river. Consequently,
when a fresh trail is struck on a stream well known to the
hunter, he can generally tell where his hounds should come to
a mark and where, when found, the otter will go for his next
retreat. This knowledge is of the utmost advantage, as it saves
much time and labour both in finding and pursuing the animal ;
whereas, on the other hand, if the river drawn be a new and
unknown one, the uncertainty of a find and a kill is greatly
increased. There may be a hot steaming drag, indicating the
recent presence of the wild beast beyond a doubt, but the
mouth of his haunt may be a foot or two under water, and if
so, hounds and terriers will pass unwittingly over it, and the
otter will sleep on undiscovered in his dry and cavernous holt.
Scores of otters escape detection in this way.

HUNTING.

One special instance occurs to my recollection : My hounds
had met on several occasions at Game's Mill, a short distance
above the tidal point of the Harberton river, and so invariably
did they hit on a fine fresh drag that, long before they reached
Ihe mill, neither whip nor rate would restrain them from break-
ing away in full cry up the beautiful meadows of the vale
above. But day after day there was no find ; every hole and
corner that would hold a rat was drawn, every open drain
searched, till at length the opinion
prevailed that the otter, after fish-
ing the upper stream, had gone
back to the salt-water cliffs below,
an impregnable fastness at all
times.

A mere accident, how-
ever, proved the contrary.
The hounds one day were
enjoying the drag on this

The escape of the otter.

water with the usual fruitless result, when a sharp thunder-
storm breaking overhead drove us for shelter into an old barn
crammed with wooden lumber that had long been stored within
its dry cob walls. Pulling our crusts out we had scarcely half
devoured them, when a restless terrier, called Fox, doubled his
tongue wildly, far down under the blocks of timber on which
we were seated.

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 293

'That's a cat for certain,' said my old friend, the Rev.
Harry Fortescue, ' that terrier is always at riot.'

But in another instant Rattler threw his tongue like a tenor
bell announcing a find, and all knew at once the long-looked-for
otter was at length found. To the river we then rushed, not
fifty yards from the barn, and great was our amazement to
view not one but a brace of fine otters glide rapidly from under
a broad stone slab that bridged a dyke running into the stream
below. But the terriers Prince and Fox, usually on the back
of a bolting otter, did not appear ; they had been stopped by
the dyke water that covered to the depth of a foot the mouth
of the drain leading up to the old barn. Here then was the
mystery solved ; countless times had the hounds carried the
drag up and down that dyke, but the submerged mouth of the
drain baffled all their inquiries.

The result is soon told; the otters, male and female of
course, on reaching the main stream parted at once. The dog
turned downwards and made a desperate effort to gain the
cliffs, but was pulled down while crossing a shallow only a
short distance from his stronghold. The other, my lady, with
a couple of hounds in close pursuit succeeded in gaining a long
deep mill pond in the meadows above, where, on following up,
we found Tyrant and Wakefield hard at her and making the
valley ring with their music, as they worked her to and fro
from one hover to another. At length she got under a bridge
which was flooded up to its very keystone, the pond being a
bumper at the time ; and here taking rest and recovering her
wind she might ultimately have beaten us, for the swimming
and marking being incessant it was beginning to tell upon the
hounds and terriers, not one of which could get under the
archway and so bolt her.

Happily, however, the jolly miller who had joined the chase
came to the rescue ; he ran home for a crowbar, lifted a flood-
hatch, and in half an hour so lowered the water that the terriers
went in and thenceforth never gave her a moment's rest. The
otter now landed, and taking to the dense scrub on the comb

294 HUNTING.

of the hedges, just as a polecat is wont to do, she showed us
some of the prettiest sport I ever saw. The terriers of course
were alone able to follow her ; but the hounds on each side of
the fence were watching the fray with intense excitement,
throwing their tongues frantically, as if to encourage their little
mates, and expecting at every instant to grab their prey. At
length down they came, terriers and otter all locked together,
the mass rolling over and over into the midst of the hounds ;
so ended this lively chase.

We always knew afterwards where to find on that river, the
moment a drag was struck on the lower waters.

The otter is believed by many to be amphibious, but suffice
it to say that neither it nor any other known animal is so
constituted. With as much reason might the pearl diver be
considered capable of sustaining life equally well in both
elements air and water as the otter. The diver descends
into the depths of the latter to earn his livelihood, and the
otter does it for the same purpose ; yet one minute's duration
in that element beyond the power of the lungs would be fatal
to both. It is also the refuge of the wild animal; but only
then does he seek it when he is forcibly driven from his dry
bed, and hopes by the interposition of the watery barrier between
him and his enemy to save his life.

Some forty years ago, while hunting with Mr. Bulteel's
hounds, I managed to catch a young otter alive : he was not
half-grown, and soon became so tame that he would come to a
call, jump upon my lap, and eat food out of my hands. Not
far from the horse box in which he lived there was a small
pond of clear water ; and to it, for he followed me like a dog,
I was wont to take him when I gave him his food. Into the
pond, however, nothing would tempt him to go, if, on galloping
round the bank and winding the water, he discovered by his
nose there was no fish in it. He would then come up to me,
and watching the bowl of fish I held in my hand, would look
into my face, as much as to say, ' Why should I wet my jacket
for nothing? my breakfast is in that bowl.' While feeding he

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS 295

often sat up like a monkey, holding the fish in his fore paws
and invariably eating it from head to tail. In a wild state,
however, the otter eats an eel only from the anal aperture
downwards to the tail ; whereas, like a true epicure, he prefers
the shoulders and upper end of the lordly salmon.

From the extreme acuteness of my tame otter's nose I dis-
covered why it was that, after a stream had been drawn and its
hovers tainted by hounds, it was useless drawing that same
water in less than a month or five weeks afterwards ; for unless
a flood had washed away all traces of the intruders, a blank on
it was a dead certainty. Hence, a wide range of rivers largely
increases the chance of finding, as the success attending the
nomad system practised by some of our most famous otter
hunters amply demonstrates.

That system may be briefly described as follows : Some
fifty years ago Mr. Lomax, a noted hunter, set the fashion of
travelling with his otter hounds from one county to another.
Hanging out at wayside inns and drawing fresh streams from
day to day, he showed marvellous sport, as he crossed them
in his course between Lancashire and the western counties.
The late Mr. Waldron Hill did the same, but on a somewhat
grander scale ; for, travelling with a van, and not content with
hunting over five or six counties in Scotland, he would take
ship and visit the Emerald Isle, the natives of which went
almost wild with delight at the sport he was wont to show on
their purling streams. Then, at the present time, we have the
Hon. Geoffrey Hill adopting the same plan, and killing on an
average at least eighteen brace of otters in a season. Nor can
I conceive a greater treat than to go a-gipsying with him
throughout the summer, now sharing the wildest of all English
sports in the best of company ; or, if the game be not afoot,
searching for it amid the most charming scenery of mountain
and vale, woodland and water. But more anon of his rivers,
hounds and sport.

In the west also, of late, the two famous packs of Mr.
Cherriton and Mr. Collier have sought fresh streams, and

296 HUNTING.

travelled into counties far distant from their own kennels ;
Wiltshire, Dorset, and Hants have been visited in turn, and
many a fine day's sport has been witnessed for the first time
in those counties. Consequently, a far greater number of
otters have been annually killed by those packs, the score
of each amounting to no less than twelve to fourteen brace a
season.

The institution of railways throughout the land has probably
done more to promote the sport of otter hunting than any other
cause ; but far distant be the day when this advantage shall lead
to the disappearance of the otter from these islands. Its extinc-
tion, like that of the wolf, the boar, and the beaver, would be a
national calamity ; but such a result, I rejoice to think, is most
improbable. The fox could be exterminated, but the otter, by
man's power, never.

The following letter from Mr. Collier, of Culmstock, con-
veying as it does the opinion of an observant and thoroughly
practical man, is most interesting in reference to the animal he
has hunted so long and so successfully. He says :

You ask me to name the best head-quarters for hunting with
my otter hounds, and I do not think a stranger could do better than
fix upon Taunton. That town being situated on the main line
most if not all my meets, extending from the Bristol to the English
Channel, can be reached from it on the evening previous to the
meeting day ; that is, either by the main or branch lines diverging
therefrom. The rivers usually hunted by my hounds are, as you
well know, the Exe, Barle, Tone, Culm, Otter, Yarty, Axe, He,
Char, and those near Dunster and Watchet on the Severn
sea.

Since 1879 I have killed over 144 otters ; thus averaging [2 brace
per season. In 1880 I killed 15 brace; and that was the best
season I ever had. This past year (1884) I have brought to hand
20 full-grown otters ; but, strange to say, have neither killed a cub
nor spurred one on all my rivers ; nor have I killed a bitch-otter in
milk. A similar occurrence, to the best of my recollection, I never
before experienced, although I have now hunted these rivers for
forty-nine seasons. I trust it does not augur ill for the future
stock.

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS, 297

I do not think otters are decreasing in numbers, neither do I
consider them more plentiful than they were forty years ago. In
those days we reckoned 10 otters a good season ; but the reason
we average more now is due to the railway, a help we did not get
in former years, the hounds having been often compelled to do
long, weary road-work before they reached the river side. For
instance, I have left Hillmoor at 2 o'clock in the morning, jogged
on to Exe Bridge, 16 miles, left my pony there, drawn up the Barle
and killed my otter on the way. Then a crust of bread and Cheese
at Withypool and at it again, over Winsford Hill to the Exe ;
found and killed another otter, picked up my pony at Exe Bridge,
and back again with tired hounds the same night to Hillmoor ;
thus covering in the day at least sixty miles. Hard work, you will
say, but sweetened by sport.

1 can remember on one such occasion, when Mr. Tom Carew
was Master of the Tiverton Hounds and old John Beale the hunts-
man, that I met their party near Tarr-Steps on the Barle ; they
had killed a brace of foxes, I a brace of otters, and as we ap-
proached on either side of the river we saluted each other with a
couple of joyous who-whoops, blew our horns, and turned home-
wards. Of course my hounds could not do another day's work for
a week or more. But now, with the advantage of the railway, I
can hunt three or four days a week, so am able to make a larger
score.

The time for otter hunting extends over a period of five
months only ; that is, from the middle of April to the middle
of September ; but as frost stops foxhounds, so do floods stop
otter hounds, and it is no uncommon event in a wet season to
find rivers quite unhuntable for weeks together ; so the short
measure of time allotted to the sport is thus seriously curtailed.
Nevertheless such hindrances in no wise affect the working
powers of the otter hound, for it matters little how lusty he may
become provided care is taken to keep his feet right by regular
exercise. And this at all times is an important point, for
unless the balls of the feet are protected by the horny substance
which only road exercise will give, the water soon soddens and
renders them painfully tender ; and then, if the hound is not
crippled, he becomes at least slack in his work, and does not

298 HUNTING.

do it with half the energy that otherwise might be expected
from him.

But to return to the otter and his ways. We have searched
the best authors on Natural History in vain with a view to
obtain some light on the dark subject of the otter's family
affairs ; how long the period of gestation, when the young are
brought forth, and how many they are in number. The first
point is ignored altogether, the early spring is guessed at for
the second, and the number of the young is variously given as
three, four and five. This last is doubtless correct, the larger
or smaller number depending on the age of the parent dam.
But as to the second point I am inclined to believe that the
period of parturition is not exactly limited to early spring, like
that of the fox, but extends also occasionally to the summer
months, inasmuch as cubs of various sizes are met with at
the same time of the year. Mr. Collier, with his half-century's
experience, writes thus :

I think it is impossible to say when otters breed, as I have
killed cubs of all sizes in the same month. Some thirty-five years
ago, about the latter end of May, we found a bitch-otter near
Ilminster, and while hunting her, the poor little mother threw her
cubs, one of which no bigger than a mouse I kept for years in a
bottle of spirit. I regret to say that last year, 1883, on our own
river, the Culm, I had the great misfortune accidentally to kill four
cubs, about four or five pounds each ; it was then the middle of
September. Only once in my life have I ever seen five in one
litter ; this was on the Yarty, and as bad luck would have it they
were lying in a dry hollow bank near some shallow water, so the
hounds and terriers killed them all instantly. I am inclined to
think three to be the average number.

The Hon. Geoffrey R. C. Hill, who has hunted the otter
from his boyhood to the present day, not only corroborates
Mr. Collier's views, but goes so far as to say that otters, like
dogs, breed at all seasons of the year. He writes thus :

I do not think any man living can tell for certain the exact
period of the year when otters breed. My own belief is that they

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS, 299

breed at all times of the year; for, during the same otter hunting
season I have myself killed them nearly full grown, then others
about fit to take care of themselves, then cubs of a still smaller
size ; again, some just born, while, sad to relate, I have slain even
the pregnant mother with the cubs yet unborn in her. I am thus
led to conclude that their season for breeding extends all round the
year.

The average number of a litter is, I believe, about three or
four ; but I fancy they do not rear more than three. Once, and
once only, have I seen six young ones, but that was quite an ex-
ceptional case ; those I took out of a drain myself and tried to rear
them, but eventually they all died.

Still, notwithstanding the opinion of those two experienced
hunters, I lean to the belief that reproduction takes place only
in the spring and early summer months ; that the cubs of
four or five pounds each, killed by Mr. Collier in the middle
of September, were born early in that year, and that those of
eight or ten pounds' weight, ' fit to take care of themselves,'
were dropped in the previous spring, and were, when killed, in
their second year. I infer this from the very slow growth of
the young otter I kept for so many months. He was about
two pounds only when I caught him in May, and although well
fed daily and in perfect health weighed no more than four or
five pounds in the late autumn, that is, in October, when he
was accidentally killed. Had he continued to live and thrive
through the winter, I believe he would have been an eight or
ten pounder in the following spring and summer.

The chase of the otter, owing to floods and cold water, is
necessarily suspended for seven months in the year ; and how-
ever desirable it might be in the interest of that sport to observe
a close time during the infancy of the cubs, the hunting season
then would be so abridged by it that few men would be willing
to keep hounds expressly for that purpose only for so short a
time. Bitch-otters yielding milk, or indicating the very recent
dependence of the young upon them, are not unfrequently
killed even in the summer months, and then of course the
whole litter is destroyed ; while many infant cubs, far more

300 HUNTING.

Lhan the eye sees, are chopped by the terriers at ground before
they are able to quit their nurseries. So, the killing of baby
cubs must needs go on, though a grief and pain to all con-
cerned in their untimely destruction.

With all packs of otter hounds the weekly continuance of
the sport, as well as the number annually killed, depends much
on the state of the rivers. When they are flooded, the hounds
would be far better on their benches than tainting the banks
and haunts of the wild animal at a time when they have no
chance of killing him ; but when low, the hounds have then
every advantage. Under the latter circumstances Mr. Geoffrey
Hill killed sixty-two otters in one season, the best he ever had.

He began hunting the otter with his own pack in 1869,' but
kept no record of his sport till 1870, from which date to the
year 1884, that is, in fifteen seasons, he has killed the large
number of 544 otters, thus averaging thirty-six a year and four
over. Yet, notwithstanding this heavy score, he says, ' Otters
are not decreasing in any way on my rivers ; they are better
preserved than they used to be, for people are beginning to find
out that they kill and keep down the coarse fish and eels
(which live upon the spawn and fry of the better sort). Besides,
otter hunting is more appreciated than in former days, and the
wild animal is now kept to show sport. Not that an occasional
otter does not fall a victim to the farm labourers and their dogs,
when, as he is wont to do, he travels up a small brook and is
caught before he can reach the safe drain for which he is
making. It is strange but true, that when a big river gets low and
there is no really strong holt upon it, he will quit that river and
go up the smallest stream, to gain if he can a more secure retreat.'

Also, he is apt to go a-frogging even on the rills of a water
meadow ; but when indulging in that pastime and luxury (for
no Frenchman loves a frog better than he does), he is sure to
have a stronghold within easy reach. The bitch -otter, when
followed by her young, is especially given to frog hunting, and

1 His elder brother, now Lord Hill, kept them for many years previously.
EDITOR.

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 301

thus probably instructs them how partially to support them-
selves before they are able to stem the currents in which their
slippery and more active prey can alone be found.

At the same time small brooks, often high up in mountain-
ous districts, are almost invariably chosen by the dam as the
quarters best suited for laying up her young. For there, at the
very source of perhaps our biggest rivers, Nature has provided
her with an ample supply of the daintiest food the fry of trout
and salmon ; and there, the currents being gentle compared
with the force of those below, the young can be better trusted
to learn their first lessons in the work of life, namely, self-
maintenance and self-preservation.

For the following most interesting communication on the
natural history of the otter I am indebted to my friend, the late
Mr. Trelawny of Coldrenick, and I have his authority for stating
that Mr. Shaw, who vouches for his labourer's veracity, is a
gentleman worthy of all credit. The letter written by Mr. Shaw
from Trelowarren, the seat of Sir Richard R. Vyvyan, Bart.,
was addressed to Mr. Trelawny ; it runs thus :

Knowing you to be a great otter hunter in that dull time of the
year which poets praise so much, I trust the following account
which has just been related to me may not prove uninteresting to
you ; and I believe I can thoroughly vouch for its authenticity,
having questioned the narrator very minutely about it. He (one
of our labourers here), on his way to his work on Wednesday last,
soon after five o'clock in the morning, saw a quantity of animals
coming along the road towards him, and stood very quietly by the
hedge till they came broadside of him. He then perceived they
were otters, four old ones, 1 and he thinks very little less, if at all,
than twenty young ones. He had nothing in his hand at the time,
but, as quickly as he could, he got a stick out of the hedge and struck
one of the young ones and ultimately killed it. The moment the
young one began to squeak, all four old ones came back and stood
grizzling, as he terms it, against him, till all the young ones had
escaped through the hedge, and then went quietly off themselves,
he being afraid to attack them. I have just weighed the one

1 The four old ones were doubtless four females ; for the dog-otter is rarely
if ever, found in company with the dam and her young ones.

302 HUNTING.

which he killed, and its weight is 5J- Ibs., which will give you some
idea of its size ; in fact, in appearance it is nearly as large as a
common-size cat. Having hunted otters much myself in former
years, I was aware of their being great travellers, but I did not
know before that they journeyed in such patriarchal -fashion, four
families of course being here congregated together. I feel assured
you will not consider the time spent in perusing this epistle thrown
away, as I think it a very interesting piece of natural history about
an animal whose habits are not very definitely known. Mr. Shaw
in a second letter adds I have since thought on the probable
reason for the migration of so many otters at once, and can only
come to this conclusion that they were bred on one of our fresh-
water rivers which are mere brooks ; and as the young ones
increased in strength and appetite, the supply of fish was not
sufficient for them, and they were therefore making their way to
the Helford river (the apparent point) which is an arm of the sea.

A stranger, wishing to hunt with the Hon. Geoffrey Hill's
hounds on the Wye, the Irfon, the Ithon, the Llynfi, Towy,
and the Eddw, could not do better than make Builth his head-
quarters. For the Usk, he should go to Brecon ; for the Teifi
and its tributaries, to Newcastle Emlyn ; for the Vale of Clwyd,
St. Asaph ; for Pembrokeshire, Haverfordwest ; and lastly, for
North Shropshire, Market Drayton. It may be added that
Mr. Hill considers the Wye and its tributaries, the Usk, the
Teifi, the Towy, and the Clwyd as his favourite and best rivers.

Artificial drains both on rivers and large fish ponds have
proved to be a great success, when constructed with due refer-
ence to the wild and shy habits of the otter's life. They arrest
him in his travelling propensities, it may be only for a night or
so ; but, when once such drains have been used, they are sure
to become known to ' all the wandering train ; ' and conse-
quently may be reckoned upon as a safe find when hounds
hit upon a fresh drag in their neighbourhood. But if made,
their whereabouts should be kept secret, or be well looked
after ; otherwise the trapper might turn them to dangerous
account.

A drain intended for the lodgment of otters, if constructed

THE OTTER AN?) HIS WAYS. 303

on a river, should be made with rough stones, and have its
entrance, about eight inches square, at least a foot below the
ordinary height of the water ; then it should slant upwards till
it reach ground high and dry above the highest level of a
winter's flood. At that point a cross-flue, intersecting the
other, and in shape like the capital letter T, should be formed
in the dry soil ; but it should be of larger dimensions than the
entrance passage say a foot in width so that an otter, or
a couple of otters, might find room in it to curl up and go to
sleep. This chamber, covered with stone slabs and a thick
layer of earth, should then be turfed over, so as thoroughly to
exclude light and air from above.

When a drag in its vicinity leads to the belief that a lodger
is within, a few hearty blows with an otter pole on the turf
overhead will probably drive him at once to quit the tenement ;
but failing thiit, a crowbar let down and rattled on the cover
stones would be sure to have the desired effect ; and if so, a
chain of pearl-like bubbles would at once rise to tell the tale.
On no account should the ground be opened and a terrier
allowed to enter the drain ; an otter so bolted, if not killed,
would never more trust himself in it ; nay, the taint of the
terrier would be so strong and lasting that I doubt much (for
they tell each other) if any otters would ever lodge there again.
A wonderful network of nerves permeates the otter's nose, and
gives that organ a power possessed by few other animals a
boon Nature has bestowed upon him, not only to enable him
to hunt up his prey, but to protect his life.

If an artificial drain on a fish pond be contemplated, no
man could do better than follow the plan adopted by Mr. John
Bulteel of Pamflete, whose experience of otter life, derived
partly therefrom, is so interesting that it may well encourage
others to go and do likewise. The pond itself is an artificial
one, formed by intercepting a brook that aforetime was wont
to chatter through a dark dingle, until it joined the river Erme
about a mile from the sea. The banks on either side are
fringed by a dense growth of evergreens, but especially by

304 HUNTING.

rhododendrons, which flourish here in the wildest luxuriance ;
while the Scotch fir and the Austrian pine overhanging the lake
cast a deep and sombre shade over it and the whole valley.
To render this quiet and secluded spot a still more tempting
retreat for the otter, the pond is well stocked with trout and
eels ; while it is only separated by a narrow sand bank from
the Erme, a tidal river famous for its truff, salmon, mullet,
flounders, and other dainty fish fresh from the sea.

Here then, if anywhere, are quarters suited in every way
to the shy and wild habits of otter life ; and here it is that
Mr. Bulteel has constructed the drain which, as might be
expected, did not long remain untenanted, and has ever since
proved a favourite lodging house to the come-and-go visitors
frequenting that pond. The drain differs in some respects
from the one described above, inasmuch as it has three distinct
entrances, one below and two above the surface of the water ;
while three or four cross -flues s running under a dark rhodo-
dendron bed, are capacious enough to accommodate a whole
family party seeking a dry and peaceful retreat. Swans,
pheasants, moorhens and kingfishers are their nearest neigh-
bours, and the only sounds that could possibly disturb their
slumbers would be those of the wild sea waves breaking on the
rocks so near their home.

Mr. Bulteel, who is not only a good sportsman but an en-
thusiastic naturalist, has been favoured in no ordinary degree
with peeps into the private life of his otter guests ; and so
intensely interesting were some of the scenes he witnessed that
although they have already appeared in print, I will again
venture to quote them in his own graphic words :

Yesterday (gth March) in the deluge we had, I thought it likely
the otter might be moving about, so I sat down in the corner by
the edge of the pond hidden by bushes, and waited. In about ten
minutes I saw the otter emerge from the opposite bank about
fifty yards from the rail on the sand and begin to fish. For full
twenty minutes she kept on diving and rising to the surface, her
attitudes most graceful, when suddenly she came up with a bright

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS.

305

white fish. She then without diving swam oft" with her head just
above water, and with wonderful rapidity, to the bank opposite,
dived, and then I heard the most extraordinary sort of whistling, I
suppose the young quarrelling for their prey. In three minutes
she came out and again repeated the same fishing, again caught a
fish, again went to the young ones. She then came out a third
time, but as I was pretty well soaked I moved on, and from that
moment all was quiet.

The swans have got accustomed to them, for although the
otter came up several times within ten yards of them, the old drake

Otters at play.

only set up his hackles and did not seem to mind her much.
Now of course I know where the young ones are laid up, and
I shall see, I daresay, very many interesting episodes of otter
life. I think you ought to come over some day and enjoy the
sight.

About a week after that tempestuous day, I was again favoured
with a grand sight, and I only wish you had been present to witness
it with me. I was sitting at the farther end of the pond from where
the young were laid up, when suddenly I saw two large otters, as
I thought, fighting. The tussle first began at the very place where
a week before I had seen the bitch-otter feed her young. The

X

306 HUNTING.

otters when under water at length loosed their hold, and one rose
to the surface two or three seconds before the other, but as soon
as the head of the latter appeared they went at each other again
con amore. I am inclined to think, from what I have since
observed (more of which as I go on), that it might have been a
game of play and romps ; but certainly they went at it hammer
and tongs until the bitch had driven the intruder half across the
pond. He then (the animal I suppose to be the stranger; landed,
set the moorhens and even the cock pheasants all on the qui vt've,
and finally I lost sight of him in the dark.

The next evening a neighbour of mine paid me a visit, and as
he expressed a strong inclination to share this sight with me, I
wrapped him up in a great-coat, put him on a camp stool, and with
a good pair of opera glasses we bided our time. Suddenly, just
opposite to me and within twenty yards of where I sat, out came
the bitch-otter, fished for ten minutes, caught a white trout, and
swam with it to her young. I looked intently but in vain at the
farther end of the pond, whence she had emerged on previous
occasions ; the careful mother had, however, owing, it struck
me, to the fight of the night before, shifted her young to other
quarters. I can scarcely describe my friend's delight at witnessing
this novel and genuine bit of wild sport.

A few days after this visit I let out the pond, and during that
time saw nothing of the otters ; I observed, however, that they
still used my drain. On Wednesday last, April 5, the waters
having risen to a respectable height, I went out for a watch, and
at 7.20 glided forth from the drain the finest dog-otter I ever saw.
He was alone and evidently on the look-out for company, not
fishing, but cruising about restlessly all over the place. Once he
actually lifted himself on his hind legs until his middle was fairly
out of the water, the wildest-looking beast I ever saw; it then
became dark and I saw him no more.

Again on Good Friday evening when all was quiet around, I
took up my position near the pond, and at 7.20 I viewed a brace
of old otters emerge from the middle outlet of my drain, and fish
industriously for half an hour. During this performance they con-
stantly returned to the drain. I have marked the place with a
cross.

On Saturday I hunted at Sheepstor Tor, came home late, so
gave my friends, or rather myself, an evening's rest. The next
night, however, being Easter Sunday, I saw at ten minutes before
seven a sight I would not have missed for gold ; a brace of otters,

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 307

evidently male and female, having in broad daylight the same sort
of turn-up I had witnessed a fortnight ago, when they were located
on the other side. They tumbled over each other, lost sight of
each other, and then had what we call in Devon ' a real scat ' at
one another. Suddenly one landed and looked out for the other,
then up he came again, and both flew into the pond locked
together. Now I must say all this appeared to me to be a friendly
business. I watched them till a quarter to eight, and latterly they
worked independently, returning to the drain every now and then,
but I saw no fish in their mouths.

I shall be able to see in a few days whether they are not, as I
strongly suspect, a brace of otters that have no communication
with the party opposite ; but, if one happens to be the old bitch-
otter I first saw with her family, all I can say is we shall yet
witness some pretty sights when she brings out her young and
teaches them to fish for themselves.

On that river Erme with the first freshet in June the white-
fish or truff came up in large shoals, to rest for some time in deep
pools at the highest point touched by the tidal wave. One of
these pools is designated par excellence the otter pool, for as
surely as the truff appear, so surely do the strong hovers hold
an otter, nay, sometimes a brace or more, in attendance on the
prey so bountifully supplied to them. The arrival of the truff, a
fish identical with the sewin, was in former days made the happy
signal for the first meet at Sequer's Bridge, which meant the otter
pool; and great was the sport usually shown on such occasions by
Mr. B ulteel's or Mr. Trelawny's hounds ; especially when Waterloo,
Wanderer, and Whirligig were the stars of the pack. Then, as
the ladies formed no small portion of the hunting field, the day
was not unfrequently wound up with an impromptu feast and
a dance afterwards on the old oak boards of the Flete hall.
Nor should it be forgotten that on one remarkable occasion a
lady devoted to the chase left a goodly portion of her white
petticoat on the snags of an old willow, but nevertheless, un-
daunted by the loss, stepped out in her ' cutty sark ' with great
effect in the ballet that followed the play; and, as a song written
at the time relates :

X 2

3o3 HUNTING.

That very e'en a hunter keen

Told her his tale alone ;
And when he gave his heart to her,

Belinda lost her own.

What happens on the Erme so regularly is doubtless the
case on other rivers, up which shoals of fish travel in their
migration from the sea ; their enemy, the otter, follows in their
wake as surely as dolphins follow the flying fish, or kites the
countless host of grey squirrels seeking a summer home. Thus,
fishermen, whose sport is too often vexatiously marred by the
night-work of the otter, are constantly able to give useful
information to masters of hounds as to the time when a find
on particular streams might be almost reckoned as a certainty.
At least, this was always the case on the Erme. ' The truff be
come, sir ; and there's one if not two o' they otters along wi'
em,' was the annual report of the old keeper, John Ford, to
Mr. Bulteel, who at once advertised an early meet with a result
almost invariably successful.

I can well remember that, many years ago, a famous otter
hunter, known in Glamorganshire as Evan Llanwensant, rarely
went in search of an otter except about the time of a new
moon ; for the wild animals, he would say, preferred the dark
nights for quitting the stronghold of the cliffs, and venturing
up the streams adjacent to the coasts. But with due deference
to Evan's theory, it is far more probable that the spring tide
rousted them out and compelled them to seek drier quarters.
At all events, with only a couple of tan-coloured hounds,
Famous and Careless, he managed to kill more otters and
foumarts than all the packs in the country put together, the
spear, however, being freely used when a chance occurred, his
motto being ' Dum spiro spero?

In the North of Devon, so devoted are the people to the
sport of otter hunting, that not only the fishermen but the
farmers will go miles out of their way to tell a master of hounds
that they have sealed an otter up such and such a stream.
Mr. Cherriton, indeed, for many years had, if he has not still,

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 309

a special correspondent at Crediton a sweep, named John
Bragg who being a first-rate hand with a fly rod, had also the
eye of a lynx for an otter's seal ; and when it was his good-
fortune to view it freshly imprinted on a spit of sand, like a
clever French piqueur he would accurately note the five pats of
the foot, being one more than those of a fox or a dog, its
exact size, and the direction of its course, whether up or down
stream, and then bound off for the kennels, no matter how
far, to convey the news so welcome to Mr. Cherriton and all
the country-side.

When a fresh trail is hit on a rocky river, where a spit of
sand is only occasionally met with and a mud band never seen,
the spramts dropped on the boulders that crop up in mid-water
indicate with tolerable certainty the course taken by the otter
in his night's work. If the spraints the odour of which is
literally more like scented snuff than foul excrement are on
the lower or down-stream side of the boulder, the otter was
working upwards ; but if deposited on the upper side, nine
times out of ten it may safely be inferred that his course was a
downward one. The keen hunters of the north, especially in
Cumberland, depend much on these marks ; and while the
hounds are busy in carrying on a drag, and no one can tell
whether it is heel or not for heel too often affords the most
enjoyable scent then every man's eye is directed to the
boulders, and he who discovers the spraints shouts aloud to
the field ' Oop-water ' or ' Boon -water,' as the case may be.

Also, on rapid and stony rivers, if the hounds frequently
land and carry the scent over the meadows and across the
curves of the stream, it is a sure sign that the otter has been
travelling upwards, and has taken the chord of the arc to avoid
the current and shorten the distance to his next retreat. On a
sluggish and meandering stream, too, he will occasionally do
the same, especially if daylight be dawning, for the witches of
Kirk Alloway never shunned the break of day more carefully
than an old otter.

A remarkable instance of three full-grown otters avoiding

2io HUNTING.

the bends of a stream and crossing a broad meadow by day-
light was witnessed at Brimpts on Dartmoor by the tenant
occupying that farm. He was called Coker ; and being a
fisherman, was asked if we were likely to find an otter on the
following day. ' Quite sure, sir,' he replied, ' on the East Dart ;
for it was only yesterday I saw three big otters, two black ones
and a white one, crossing that meadow below us and going up
for Post Bridge.'

'A white otter, Ned?' I snid, with a smile of incredulity
I could not disguise.

' Yes, sir, a white one ; the colour of that white hat on the
squire's head.'

Mr. Edward A. Sanders, the owner of the property, was
standing near at the time ; and as he and I moved off together,
I could not help telling him what I thought of his tenant's
veracity.

However, the man's tale was true to the letter ; we found
and found, but owing to the hollow submerged rocks, did not
catch a single view of either a black or a white otter. At
length, on the second day, Midnight came to a mark on a
clitter of rocks adjoining the river ; in went the terrier Prince,
and to our utter amazement, out glided something that at first
looked like a salmon belly upwards ; but it soon proved to be
a beautiful cream-coloured otter, which in the dark waters of
the Dart appeared as white as an Arctic fox.

He was soon killed, his very colour being against him a
fine dog-otter.

Of all the beasts of venerie, there is not one for whose
scent unentered hounds seem to care so little as for that of the
otter. When the Rev. John Russell of Tordown first started
a pack, during his first two seasons he had not a hound amongst
them that would touch a trail. ' I walked/ he says in his memoir,
' three thousand miles without finding an otter ; and although I
must have passed over scores, I might as well have searched for
a moose deer.' No doubt of it ; but when once he had secured a
hound that thoroughly knew his work, he had no further trouble.

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 311

The scratch lot, under the tutelage of Racer, soon learned their
lesson ; and Russell in a couple of seasons ' scored five-and-
thirty otters right off the reel.'

The scent, in truth, does not appear a natural one to
hounds or terriers ; and hence the difficulty in getting them to
take to it. In the North of England it is a common practice
to enter puppies on foumart first, and after killing a few of
those skunk-like vermin, they take readily to the scent of an
otter. Yet, to the human nose, no two animals can differ more
in their natural odour ; the skin of the one yielding an effluvium
almost imperceptible and by no means disagreeable ; whereas
that of the other is so fcetid, so noisome, that I have seen
hounds sneeze violently and turn away in disgust when killing
it. But neither the rough hounds used in the north, nor the
wire-haired Welsh hound evince such unreadiness to enter as
their congener the foxhound, of which race it is no figure of
speech to say that not one in ten ever fancies the scent. But,
find one that really takes to it kindly, and that hound is price-
less. His high-mettled courage carries him gallantly to the
front on the longest and coldest day ; and while the rough
hound, good as he may be, stands shivering on the bank, over-
weighted by water and chilled to the marrow, the endurance of
the foxhound becomes conspicuous. He goes on marking the
most valuable quality an otter hound can possess and when
he speaks, it is a guinea to a shilling the otter is there. Not so
with the rough hound ; for, when at all beaten, he is very apt
to throw his tongue too freely, dwelling on old scent, and so
attracting the pack to hovers in which the otter is no longer to
be found.

Still, as a trail hound, give me a big blue-mottled harrier,
or a wire-haired hound for that purpose ; he is not so prone to
hit and flash ahead as the other, but is more poky in searching
for his game, and consequently does not draw over it half so
often as the dashing foxhound. So, to my mind, a thoroughly
efficient pack of otter hounds should consist of a mixed lot,
but chiefly of foxhounds, with two or three rough or big harriers

3i2 HUNTING.

to help them on the trail and, if not too noisy, to keep them by
their bell-like tongues to the water-side.

Mr. Trelawny, whose belief in a foxhound led him to under-
value every other description of hound, was nevertheless in-
debted to the rare drawing qualities of Romulus and Cardigan
two rough Cumberland hounds for many a find and many
a rare day's sport with his famous flying pack. Yet he cordially
hated their heavy sing-song tongues. Mr. Collier, too, works
a rough one or two ; but the otter once found, the foxhound
is his main stay. Rough or smooth, however, an otter hound
can never be too lusty nor too long in the leg ; for often where
he can touch-and-go, a short-legged hound is obliged to swim,
and at that game the otter is the better man.

Mr. Waldron Hill, than whom few men ever followed the
otter with greater success, adopted the plan of crossing a tame
dog-wolf with his rough bitches, but down to the fourth or
fifth generation the puppies were so wild and unruly that they
were worse than useless worse because at the very sight of a
sheep their wolfish nature defied all discipline, and run him
they would at any price. However, what with time and rating,
they at length became a serviceable pack. Nay, the Hon.
Geoffrey Hill, to whom Mrs. Waldron Hill on the death of her
husband kindly presented the whole pack, describes them now
as ' a steady-working lot of hounds.'

Owing probably to their wolfish incisors they were able at
once to break up an old otter and tear him into

A hundred tatters of brown,

which feat, with a shout of ' Tear him and eat him, lads,'
Mr. Waldron Hill always encouraged them to perform.

On a river abounding in high banks and long reaches it is
doubtful if hounds could ever kill an otter without the guidance
of man. In such water their best chance of success depends
mainly on the help he gives them by keeping a watchful eye
on the shallows above which the- hounds are working their
game. And to give that help efficiently the man on whom

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 313

the duty devolves stands, it may be, knee-deep in the stream ;
and there, keeping a steady and patient look-out, either heads
him back into the pool above, or with a rattling view-holloa
allows him to slip down into easier water, where the hounds
can work him with more advantage.

But the sentinel must be an experienced man, not at one
moment watching the stream and the next looking up at the
hounds, or, however clear the water may be, the wild animal

will glide by him like a ghost, and probably never be recovered
again.

In drawing a river, hounds should never be allowed to stray
away from its banks ; riot is thus prevented, and they soon
learn the practice of clinging to the stream. Nor, when the
trail is hot, can a hound be too slow in searching for his game,
provided his slowness be not attributable to slackness or old
age. The best finder I ever saw was a stifled hound.

Hounds, when an otter is found in a deep pool, are very

3T4 HUNTING.

apt to flash off with the floating scent and to carry it for a long
distance down stream ; while the otter, scared by the men
guarding the shallows, has only taken a turn or two round the
pool and come back to his strong hover again. Foxhounds,
especially if not old hounds at the work, are not to be stopped
by whip or horn at such a time ; down they go in full swing,
splashing and dashing ahead in the wildest enjoyment of the
surface-scent. It is a beautiful sight but does nothing towards
killing the otter, for he soon recovers his wind and the terriers
must again tackle him, but now with a far tougher task before
them than in the first instance. He knows he is beset by a
strong host without, and therefore will too often punish the
lesser foe cruelly before he can be forced to quit his stronghold
again. But when in a rapid river the scent is thus washed
down by the current and the hounds are revelling upon it, the
huntsman cannot be too steady in his action, for by standing
still, instead of joining in their excitement, he will teach them
a lesson of steadiness ever needful in an otter hound. Again,
when an otter is loth to quit a big pool and shifts only from
one strong hover to another, the water and hovers become so
impregnated with scent that the most trustworthy hounds are
then unable to distinguish the new from the old scent ; they
mark here when the otter is there, securely catching his wind
to prolong the fight. The only plan then is to call off the pack
till the stained water has passed down, and presently on return-
ing, of course against stream, the hounds will fresh find him with
little or no difficulty. But observe that, when all is quiet, and
especially if the banks are fringed with coppice-wood, the otter,
finding no rest in the hovers and now half-beaten, is very apt
to land and, if he can, slip away across country for some
distant and safer refuge. This, however, is only a forlorn hope,
and the enemy often overtakes him before he can ' fetch ' the
point he aims at.

An old otter going for a strong holt, especially if fortified by
water, is a very difficult animal to head back, and if not killed
in the attempt, will make his point against all odds. A very

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 315

remarkable instance of this fact occurred to Mr. Geoffrey Hill
when hunting in the county of Waterford. He was standing
with his hounds and a large party of friends near a rock famous
for holding an otter, but equally famous for baffling the best
native terriers. However he was just going to put one of his
tartars in when a ' holloa ' from his kennel huntsman made all
the field look round, ' and we saw,' he says, ' an old dog-otter
coming right at us. We rushed out and did all we could to
turn him towards the river, not twenty yards off, hoping to have
some sport, but all in vain ; he came straight into the whole
pack and was of course instantly killed. This incident was
witnessed by many members of my hunt and by several gentle-
men who had joined me from Waterford.'

An otter was once seen to go into a clitter of rocks on
Dartmoor literally between the legs of a gentleman, the Rev.
Fitz Taylor, purpostly stationed there to keep him out ; and the
terriers, good as they were, fairly failed to bolt him afterwards.

Again, on the south coast of Devon, near Slapton, there is
a small brook culled Blackpool, which from the sea to its source
scarcely exceeds four miles. It is well known to the local
fishermen to be swarming with trout, and nightly did an otter
visit it, but never failed to return to his stronghold in the cliffs
before daylight. To cut off his retreat and head him back,
several times the following plan was adopted : Leaving the
kennels soon after midnight and jogging on with the hounds to
a small bridge that crossed the brook within a hundred yards
of the sea, the spot was reached about 2 A.M., and there the first
blush of morn awaited. But all in vain ; time after time the
same hot trail roused up the villagers and excited warm hope,
but there was no visible otter and consequently no kill. The
wily beast fairly beat his enemies, managing in the dark either
to slip down with the current unseen, or to land behind their
backs and gain the cliffs before the hounds could catch him.

But every rule has its exception ; and Mr. Collier will never
forget the triumph he once achieved in heading back an otter
on the Torridge River. He certainly adopted an exceptional

316 HUNTING.

plan for his manoeuvre, and moreover, it was at night-time,
which rendered his success the more remarkable :

We found (he says) about 5 P.M. in a long weir-pool, some two
, miles above the inn at Woodford Bridge, where we were quartered
for the night. Rattled him well for an hour ; then called off, there
being little chance of killing so late in the day. But, feeling sure
he would go down stream to some heavy water below, I decided to
try a dodge with him and keep him up, if possible. So, collecting
five or six lanterns, I lighted and hung them at dusk under the
arches of the bridge. Then stationed two men, one on each side
of the river, to thrash the water with long poles just above the
bridge, and, to crown all, Mr. Frank Cockburn and I lighted a big
bonfire which, while we cracked whips and blew horns, we kept
going till daylight. At 4 A.M. we began to draw for him up stream,
and on crossing the very first hedge above the bonfire, away went
the hounds in full cry. Then old Benedict's roar soon told us the
otter was found, and the fun was on in earnest. He then landed,
and crossing many acres of fern, gained a large cover, up which
he went and down again through another cover ; but before he
could reach the river by thirty yards, they rolled him over within
a short distance of our night's quarters an old dog-otter.

The trail, when an old otter has a point to make, will not
unfrequently extend to a distance of eight or ten miles, and
that too across country, if his point happens to be on another
river. Mr. Collier's experience ot this erratic habit is very
pleasantly told in the following letter :

I have had some extraordinary sport this season (1884), such
as I never saw, or can ever expect to see again. The trail hunting
has been something wonderful. My first meet was on the Culme,
near Collompton ; there took a trail, and at the end of ten miles
up stream, found ; had three hours and a quarter, and killed. Last
June, in response to an invitation from the Hon. G. Lascelles, I took
ten couple of hounds into Hampshire to draw the streams in the
New Forest, making Brockenhurst my head-quarters. Monday,
1 6th, we met at Beaulieu at 7 A.M. After drawing up stream about
half a mile, we struck on a trail, which the hounds carried on at a
rattling pace for miles through this wild country. The otter now
began to twist and turn a good deal ; but every inch was hunted

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 3(7

out, and after nine miles we found, had one hour and twenty
minutes, and killed. Wednesday, iSth, at Lodre Bridge, soon got
on a trail ; making good my lower point, turned and rattled up
stream merrily ; seven miles and a half brought us to the varmint's
quarters ; had some good sport, and killed a brace. Next day
(Thursday) met at the kennels, Lyndhurst ; close by was a pond of
several acres, which it was thought advisable to draw before going
down stream. On arriving there, the hounds at once had some
very hot scent, and casting round, hit him off through a thick cover
above. Catching sight of his seal, it put new life into my veins.
* Yoicks forward, my lads ' (but not a word to the field), away we
vent out of cover, across thirty acres of mowing grass to another
cover above, through which the pack dashed as if running a fox,
and on to another pond ahead. Leaving this in the rear and cross-
ing a road, they broke into a large inclosure of heather and sedge.
The hunting now was simply beautiful ; over the hedge they go, at
the farthermost end, and out on the common, through a small piece
of water, and away over the hills (many of the field, I believe,
fancying I could not be' hunting an otter, the country being full of
deer and foxes, but my faith never wavered). Sinking the next
valley, we came to the river where we killed our brace of otters the
previous day, only it was a mile or two farther up stream ; here
was a welcome halt for a minute or two. I made my cast above,
but found he had not gone up. ' Hark back ; ' and two hundred yards
below hounds got on to him again, making the woods ring with their
music. Passing the holt of the previous day, they carried it down
stream for about four miles ; and here he again left the river, the
hounds hitting the line across a portion of the forest, and dropping
into the Burley stream, up which they hunted him beautifully ; now
searching for him as if they meant to find. But it was hark forward
again on to Burley, where several hundred head of cattle and
several cottages brought the hounds to a check. However, I was
soon on the spot, and lost no time in casting above the cottages
as the day was growing older. ' Yoicks ! at him again ! ' and three
hundred yards farther up Harlequin (the rough hound, which
no doubt you recollect), galloping up by the stream, winded him
in the hedge, made a dash, and out my friend came into the water,
and was soon killed. Thus ended one of the best days from first
to last I ever saw, the distance covered being about sixteen miles.
Saturday, 2ist, met at Lymington Bridge, turned down stream,
struck a trail at once, which we hunted about two miles, when the
otter left this river also and went three or four miles across the

3'8 HUNTING.

marshes down to the Solent. When we got there, we found the
hounds swimming the salt water, and I was asked what could be
done. The only thing I could suggest was ' to get a steamer and
cast for him on the opposite shore.' I think you will agree with
me, after what I have now related, that you and I must feel how
little we know what this wild animal is really capable of doing ; I
say it is like music, we shall never arrive at the bottom of it.
Another remarkable thing has happened to me this season. On
August 26 I met at Dulverton, drew up the Bade, found near
Bradley Ham ; had a capital turn and killed. Slept at Withypool,
and met at Winsford the following morning at six. Drew down
to the junction of the Quarm and Exe ; here I took a trail, and
before reaching the old abbey at Barlinch, the hounds had a
rattling scent on both sides of the river. I arrived at the con-
clusion that it must be a brace of otters, but no otter was gazed at
least for an hour. While we were working him with some very
pretty hunting on the weir pool, I heard a view-holloa below in the
mill stream, and rushed down with only three couple of hounds at
my heels. The rest of the pack remained working in the weir,
and at that very moment forced their otter to land through the
cover above, being close at him and of course the field with them.
This I knew nothing of at the time ; however, I stuck to my otter
with the three couple and killed her handsomely, the other lot
going up the vale like mad, sometimes in the river, and then again
on land, till at length they rolled their otter over also about half a
mile above. This is the first time I have ever known a pack of
otter hounds dividing, each killing their otter.

But now for the terriers, a most important and indis-
pensable adjunct to a pack of otter hounds ; for on every
occasion where strong holts or underground drains are met
with, on them it will depend whether a trail is to end in a find
or not. The process of ejectment, generally a bloody one in
close quarters, it is their duty to serve. The terrier, therefore,
should be hard, wiry, and by no means too big in size ; other-
wise he will not only be unable to work a narrow drain, but
by scraping back the earth to get at the otter, he will dam the
water behind him, and so, if not rescued, be drowned.

Like the foxhound, not one terrier in twenty will take
kindly to an otter, although the veriest cur will join a worry or

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 319

hang to him when killed and suspended from a tree. But as
to drawing the hovers and drains of their own accord and
helping to find him, that is at once a rare and most valuable
quality. The writer has tried to enter, first and last, scores of
terriers, most of which would readily go to ground and mark a
fox or badger well ; yet four were all he ever owned that for find-
ing and bolting an otter were worth a handful of meal. One of
them, called Prince, would traverse a wet drain for a quarter of
a mile, was often pounded by water, and as often rescued by
the spade. Nothing would induce Tip to enter a drain, but he
would follow its course above ground, searching for rats' holes,
and so find his otter. Fox spoke freely on the trail, and would
hunt an otter under a clitter of rocks like a spaniel driving a
rabbit through a furze brake.

But no one perhaps has ever possessed more remarkable
terriers than the present (the eighth) Duke of Beaufort, who kept
otter hounds for many years. One, called Billy, was so keen and
so clever that, if he caught wind of an otter through a rat's hole
on the bank, he would first search for an entrance, and if he did
not find one above water, would go under to a depth of eighteen
inches or two feet : then shortly after ecce signum a chain of
silver bubbles rises to the surface, and Billy, triumphant, comes
up again. Two others acquired this very rare accomplishment
from Billy, and like him were occasionally saved by the spade.
It is highly probable that on big rivers like the Severn and the
Wye, otters grow heavier and bigger than they do on smaller
streams, just as trout do. In Devonshire, for instance, the top
weight for an old dog-otter is twenty-six pounds ; but on the
Trothy, a confluent of the Wye, his Grace killed in the same
week a brace of otters, the first scaling twenty-nine and the other
twenty-eight pounds. ' In floods,' he writes, ' I have found otters
far above the water ; once, taking the drag from my own front
door at Troy House, the hounds carried it for six miles up the
flooded Trothy, and then found him high in a wood overhang-
ing a small rivulet. At first 1 feared it was a fox, but down he
came bundling best pace into the brook. Hoping to head him

320 HUNTING.

from the Trothy, I ran two miles down stream and got under
a bridge only two hundred yards from that river. I was
scarcely in when I saw him coming, breaking the water in his
huny, and bouncing bang up against my legs; Up he went,
again, and we then killed him weight twenty-nine pounds.'

When an otter is found in a narrow underground drain, the
best mode of bolting him is to open it at some distance from
its mouth ; the terrier then, with his head towards the river,
comes in behind the enemy, and will probably bolt him without
bloodshed ; he will thus escape the punishment he is otherwise
sure to suffer. But, if there be running water in the drain and
the dog is unable to get at him, the process of drowning him
out, though sometimes a tedious one, is yet generally successful.
By cutting a trench across the drain a few feet from its mouth
the water is asily dammed by a heavy turf or two ; it then
soon rises, and, as it fills in the drain above, the otter is com-
pelled to bolt. The hounds of course must be kept at a
distance, or a chop would occur and mar the sport. The
modern manufactured dog, commonly called a fox terrier, is so
thin-skinned, and so given to fighting his own species when
jammed together in a hover, that I would far prefer using the
old-fashioned, wire-haired terrier, with no bull-dog blood in his
veins, to all the prize terriers of the present day ; but he must
be a game one to the backbone.

But, let me add a few more words ere this paper be closed.
The hour of meeting in the morning cannot well be too early if
you have young hounds to enter and only a couple or two of
old ones to act as pioneers; for then the fresh reeking scent,
unimpaired by the sun, hangs invitingly upon every weed and
willow touched by the otter in his night's work, and is then, of
course, far more attractive in its hot condition than after it has
been chilled by time. But, on the other hand, if your hounds
are veterans, experienced in their work, the period of meeting
may well be deferred to a later and more convenient hour

321

APPENDIX A.

4STERS, HUNTS A

GHOUNDS ENGLA]

^

H

*!

Cfl

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5

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1

o

^

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said 003

NAME OF HUNT,
with towns convenient
for visitors

ER MAJESTY'S
Windsor, Maidenhead,
Slough

ERKHAMPSTEAD

Great Berkhampstead,
Tring, St. Albans

EVON AND SOMERSET
Porlock, Minehead, Dul-
verton

NFIELD CHASE
St. A I 'bans, Hatfield,
Hertford, Hitchin

5SEX

Ongar, Harlow. C helms-
ford

ILES', MESSRS
Weobley, Leotninster,
Hereford

USSARS, 20TH

Norwich, Wymondham

a

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KENNELS

Wateringbury,
Maidstone

Hinchelsea, B

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Savernake Fore

Chilmead, N
Redhill
Acre Hill, Chess
Surrey

Strood Park, H

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Ashbourne, co.

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NAME OF HUNT,
with towns convenient
for visitors

MID-KENT
Maidstone, Wrotham

(

Lyndhurst, Ringwo,
Lymington

ROTHSCHILD'S, LORD
Leighton Buzzard, Ayi
bury

SAVERNAKE FOREST

Marlborough, Hunger/a

Savernake
SURREY
Redhill, Croydon
SURREY FARMERS'
Ewell, Epsom, Leath
head

Horsham, Dorking, Gui
ford

DOWN Co
Belfast, Ballynahim
Downpatrick

HUMPHRYS', Mr. A. E. ..
Cavan, Belturbet

WARD UNION ...

Dunboyne, Dunshaughl
Dublin

APPENDIX A.

323

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hampton, Stafford

THERSTONE

Atherstone, Nuneaton,
Tam-iuorth

ADSWORTH

Ackworth, Pontefract

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Chesterfield
EAUFORT'S, DUKE OF
Chi/ipenham, Tetbury,

Alaliitesbury

EDALE

fledale, Thirsk, Nort.'ia*
lerton

ELVOIR

Grantham, Melton Mou
bray, Sleaford

ERKELEY

Cheltenham, Bristol

ERKELEY, OLD .'....

\Vatford, Rickmansiuort)

ERKELEY OLD (WEST)....

Amersham, Wycomb(
Chesham

ERKSHIRE, OLD
Abingdon, Faringdon,

ERKSHIRE, SOUTH

Reading, Newbury, Wi

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cott, Holsworthy
^ton, Cambrldgesh

lling Court, D(
Hester

Pierre, Chepstow

rest Kennels, Nort
rich
derley, Market Dn
on

de Stile, Busbridg
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APPENDIX A.

325

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SkeltonCast
R.S.O.

Ambleside, V

St. Breward,

Helston, Cor

Pentillie C
Mellion

Cheltenham

Broadway,
shire

Barleythorpc

Walcot, H
I3erks

West Grinst*

Croome, Sev
Worcester

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CLEVELAN D
Guisboro' , Rcdcar, Salt- '
burn, Stokesby

CON ISTON
Ambleside, Coniston
CORNWALL, NORTH
Bodmin, Camelford, Wade-
bridze

CORNWALL, SOUTH
Helston, Penrhyn, Fal-
iii o ut h, Truro
CORYTON'S, MR. W
Salt ash, Liskeard, Cal-

lington
COTSWOLD
Cheltenham, Winchcombc
COTSWOLD, NORTH
Broadway, Kvesham,
Moreton

COTTESMORE
Oakhain, Melton Moi.vbray
CRAVEN
Hungerford, Newbury

CRAWLEY AND HORSHAM ...
Horsham, Worthing,

^^O'"" 1 ;?'

CROOME
Upton, Worcester, Mal-

vern
CUMBERLAND
Carlisle, Penrith, Cocker-
mouth

DARTMOOR
Ivy Bridge, Plymouth,
'J otnes

DEVON, SOUTH ... .
Newton Abbot, T otnes,

7 orqnay
DEVON, SOUTH (EXETER
DIVISION)

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, Essex

'nton, Devon

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NAME or HUNT,
with towns convenien
for visitors

DORSET, SOUTH
Blandford, Dorchest
Weymouth
DURHAM, NORTH
Durham, Sttnderlant
Newcastle
DURHAM, SOUTH
Stockton, Darlington

ESKDALE ....

M/A,V/,

ESSEX
Harlcnv, Epping, Che
ford, Dnnmcnv
ESSEX, EAST
Braintree, Chelinsfor^
ESSEX AND SUFFOLK ..
Colchester, Ipswich

ESSEX UNION
Brentivood, Chelinsfo
Maldon
EXMOOR
Lynton, For lock, Exf

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j O KQ

t U 5 i*

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rf^ ."j..^^^

2 ^<-<!&a^

fljniHrl

||5||4||l|^

APPENDIX A.

327

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g 8
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11

H

B ^

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c c : B i- i B

U Q ^ S EH >-l P3
O oo H W W III H

C. Lowman
Robert Wall

H. Prir.e .

Tom Smith
T. Bishop

J. Newman
H. Goodwin

W. Henley, k.h.

B

'hJ

H

II

O^CjP;

W. Adcock
W. Maiden

A. Guy
G. Hollingsworth

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3ATHLAND

Whitby, Pickering

OODWOOD

Chichester, Arundel, Mia
hurst

^t iMr-'c Mo

Bishop's Stortford, Her
ford

RAFTON

Buckingham, Brackley,
Towcester

AMBLEDON

Winchester, Southamptor
Portsmouth

AYDON

Hexham, Haltwhistle

EREFORDSHIRE, EAST ....

Tenbury, Bromyard,

EREFORDSHIRE, NORTH .

Hereford, Leominster,
Bromyard

EREFORDSHIRE, SOUTH....

Hereford, Ross

ERTFORDSHIRE

Luton, Hatfield, Harpen

EYTHROP

Chipping Norton, Mart
ton-in-the Marsh
. H
Alton, Alresfordi Win
Chester

O O O O O

O O c.

") O

X X

X

M

W X

X X

328

HUNTING.

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i i : i

NAME OF HUNT,
with towns convenient
for visitors

HOLDERNESS ... .
Bez'erley, Hull, Driffiela
HURSLEY
Winchester, Southamptc
HURWORTH
Croft, Darlington

ISLE OF WIGHT
Newport Cowes, Ryc>
Shanklin, Sandown

JARVIS', MR
Lincoln, Newark
JOHNSTONE'S, CAPT. HON.
Scarborough, Malton,
Pickering

KENT, EAST
Folkestone, Canterbury
KENT, WEST
Sevenoaks, Farninghai
Tn nl> ridge Wells
KENT, WEST (EAST SIDE)
Rochester, Mailing, Mai
stone

KENT, WEST (WOODLAND)
Tunbridge Wells, Buxte
Mayfield

LAMERTON
Tavistock, Launceston
LEDBURY
Malvern, Tewkesbury
LLANGIBBY
Usk, Newport
LUDLOW
L ud low, Knight on, Te
bury

APPENDIX A.

529

JL

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Blackerton Ho
Dulverton

High Park,
water
Sudbury, Derb

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60

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Newminster, IV

Nenadd-Fawr,

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Saxon Hall, N
market

Narford, Swafl

ts

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C

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Lawrenny Par
broke

Wilton Park, f

rt
fa

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2

Llanelly
Greenrig, Lesb

.">

J. Pearson

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N. Brooker ....
J. Morgan

G. Shepherd, k
J. Brown
G. Alcock

C. Smith

G. Whitemore
J. Brown
F. Kinch
F. Beck

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MARSHALL'S, MR. W. N. C.
Barnstaple, South Mo! ton,
Dulverton

MELLBRAKE
Cockermouth, Keswick
MEYNELL
Derby, Burton-on- Trent
MIDDLETON'S, LORD
Malton, York, Scarborough
MILLS', MR. J
Lyndhurst, Lymington
MONMOUTHSHIRE
Abergavcnny, Usk
MORPETH
Morpcth

NEUADD-FAWR
Lampeter, Aberayron
N. F. H. (NEW FOREST)
Lyndhurst, Lymington,
Southampton
NEWMARKET AND THURLOW
Newmarket, Linton,
Ilavcrhill
NORFOLK, WEST
Lynn, Swaffhatn, Fakcn-
hain

NOTTS, SOUTH
Nottingham, Newark,
Mansfield

OAKLEY
Bedford, Sharnbrook, Wel-
lingboro', Kimbolton
OXFORDSHIRE, SOUTH
Oxford, Tliame, Walling-
ford

PEMBROKESHIRE
Haverfordwcst, Mi (ford
Haven
PEMBROKE'S, EARL OF
Wilton, Salisbury
PENLLERGARE
Llanelly, Carmarthen
PERCY'S, EARL
Alnwick, Bedford, Wooler

HUNTING.

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NAME OF HUNT,
with towns convenient
for visitors

!fr-!.- :- ! U ; 1
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H^g^l^-^HSN

UORN, THE
Melton Mowbray, Leices-
ter, Loughborough

ADNORSHIRE AND WEST
HEREFORDSHIRE
Kington, Presteign
AVER'S, MR. W. C
Tiverton, Wellington,
Ba mpton
UFFORD, THE
Newark, Mansfield,
Chesterfield

ELDY'S, MR
Rothbury, Morpeth

HROPSHIRE

Shrewsbury, Wem, New-
port, Wellington

ft, PH PH PH PH PH PH

a

M M K

W 01

APPENDIX A.

\ 1

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V

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u c

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^--s

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* $

# S

CO

si 1

on Cottage, B
Edmunds

1 ^

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ide, near Taun
lerset

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a 2 1

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S)

rdaleHall, Pat
:, Penrith

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Funnell

|f|||j

. Beames
Lloyd ...
'. Davis
ie Farmers

k

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INNINGTON

Hehnsley, Kirbyn
OMERSET, WEST ..
Minehead, Dunst
liton

OUTHDOWN

Lewes, Brighton,
bourne

OUTHWOLD, THE ..
Louth, Spilsby, H
castle
I'ICER'S, CAPT. J. 1
Chippenham, Cain

TAFFORDSHIRE. Nc

l>&2
^^(S

11^1
4 8,51

Q (^ C

U ^ U

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gig

Cobham, Leat
Esher
USSEX, EAST
Hastings, Battle

if

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Newcastle- Emlyn
REDEGAR'S, LORD
Newport, Cardiff
'YNEDALE
Newcastle-on-Tyn
ham, Corbridge

JLLSWATER
Penrith, Kendal,

C/3 t/3 C/3 C/2

H H

332

HUNTING.

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C -5 fe C J3

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KENNELS

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>>>^^^^^^^^^

APPENDIX A.

333

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YORK AND AINSTY
York

ZETLAND'S, EARL OF
Croft, Darlington

BERWICKSHIRE
Coldstream, Duns

BUCCLEUCH'S, DUKE OF..
Melrose, Kelso

DUMFRIESSHIRE
Lockerbie, Dumfries
Annan

EGLINTON'S, EARL OF....
Ayr, Kilmarnock, Irvt

ESKDAILL....

Langholm

FIFE
Cupar, St. Andre
Dunferniline

LANARK AND RENFREW.
Glasgow, Paisley

LINLITHGOW AND STIRLI

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HUNTING.

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Jigginstown, N
Kildare
Rockview, Sto

Newpark, Ra
co. Limerick
Lissrenny, Ard<

Nugentstown,
co. Meath

Moneyguyneen
nitty

Oatlands, 1
Cork

Roseville, Clon
Tipperary

Midleton, Cork

Culleen, Mullin
Tykillen, Wexf

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NAME OF
with towns cc
for visi

GALWAY COUNT
Galway, A the

rea, aanaght

HUSSARS, 4TH...
Cork, Macrooi

KILDARE
Naas, Neivbrt
KILKENNY
Kilkenny, Kel

LIMERICK COUN'
Limerick, Cro
LOUTH
Drogh'.da, Lo

MEATH
Navan, Dubli

ORMOND & KIN
Parsonstown,

SOUTH UNION..
Kinsale, Cork

TIPPERARY
Cloninel, Cahi

UNITED HUNT
Midleton, Cor

WESTMEATH ..
Mullin^ar
WEXFORD
W extord, Em

APPENDIX A.

335

6

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HUNTSMA

John Pugh .
Thomas Owei
Stephen She

Samuel Olloss

The Master .

John Hilton .

James Rigby
Tom Cuthber

The Master .

V

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HUNTING
DAYS

C/3 wc/ ?C/3

Mon.Thur.
Sat.

d

o

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1

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s
1

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336

HUNTING.

J:

C JS

fa* -J f " J2

A

^

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3

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9

.C

KENNELS

Brecon, South Wa

Brightling Park.H
hurst

Patcham, near B
ton, Sussex
Rottingdean, near
Brighton
Pen-y-Bryn, Carna

Pounds, nearPlym

D"| U .^S 5 ^
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n O m u> M S u

Green Street, Old ]
bourne, Sussex

jL

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:A

NAME OF HUNT,
height and breed of
hounds

17 to 18 in. Harriers

RIGHTLING PARK
19 in. Pure Harriers <
Southern

RIGHTON

20. Foxhound BUclies

21 in. Harriers

19 in. Harriers
HAPELL-HODGE'S, MR. ..

20 in.

<0 -^

K : : i^

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ASTBOURNE

21 in. Foxhound ai
Harrier Cross

ASTON PARK
20 in.

DENBRIDGE

22 in. Pure Southern

n

M

n

a

U U

u u u O O 3 w

H

H

4

APPENDIX A.

337

Broomhall, Pwlheli
Woodfurd, Essex

"rt

O
O

c

_0

rt

w

I

Frittenden, Staple-
v,,,^.f k;^

Garswood, Lancashire

Boddington Manor,
near Cheltenham
Langley Park, Slough,
Liucks

v "5 o 5 ~ ^"="-3 1 "5 2 "

u s J K "K w

/ ="

' rt

o

I

Cheshire
Marlborough, Kings-
bridge, Devon
Yalding, Kent

i.

r--

5

4^

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George Chappie

Bob Pope

S c

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J. Sherwood.. ..
Henry Hillier ..

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Seth Lowe

Mr. Thos. Ada
William Lindon
George Stanley

One of the field

James Churchwo
William Ball

M

The Master . . .
The Master . .

The Master . . .

The Master . . .

e

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The Master . . .
George Farr. . .

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Hugh Pugh .. .

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n. Harriers
JG FORKST . .

o 21 m. Dwarf F
until

n. Cross-bred

N3CIN3

WOOl

in. Foxhound a

uthern

n. Harriers
EV, the late SIR

^ThSON

RD'S, SIR CHARLES .

\\.-Harneis

-BOROUGH

n. Harriers
JEN VALLEY

-HYR OLD COURT . . .

h

K
3

n. Harriers
IERTON'S, MR
n. Harriers

E S

o-*: 5 o

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fe

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338

HUNTING.

KENNELS

i

*

1

__

ham-on-Severn, Glou-
cestershire
Bessingham, Norwich

c

cT

c:

*

fi

O S

*55

0*- 1
O

End Moor, Kendal,
Westmoreland

Wilton House, near
Salisbury
Waddingion, near Cli-
theroe, Lancashire

Penistone, near Shef-
field, Yorkshire
Ashcombe, nr. Weston-
su per- Mare
Plas Machynlleth, N.
Wales
Bwlchbychan,Llnnyby-
ther,R.S.O., S.Wales

Stevenstone, Upton
Pyne, Devon
Quarme, near Dunster,
Somerset
Finghall, Bedale, York-
shire

West Clandon, Guild-
ford, Surrey
Roath Court, Cardiff
Glamorganshire

*5

c

2

a

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NAME OF HLINT,
height and breed cf
hounds

EWNHAM .

22 in. Foxhounds

oRFOLk, NORTH
1 8 in. Harriers

ORTHUMBKKLAND AND
DURHAM
18 in. Pure Harriers

XENHOLME

19 in. Harrier and das)
of Foxhound
EMHKOKK'S, EARL OF
19 in. Harriers
ENDLE FOREST
22 in. Harrier and Sontk
ern

ENISTONE .

22 in. Old Southern
IGOTT'S, MK. CECIL-SMITI

LAS MACHYNI.I.ETH
19 in. Harriers
RYSE'S, MR. VAU<;HAN ...
18 hi. H. and F. cross

20 in. Pure Harriers

i8A in. Harriers
AY V S, MK. F. H
21 in. /^wr Foxlionm
Bitches

II'LEYAND KNAP HILL .. .
20 to 21 in. hoxhounds
OATH COURT
10 to 20 in. Dwarf Pox
hounds

X

*

a

O

Pi Pi

Pi P<

Pi

Pi

Pi O* CH

* K

APPENDIX A.

339

U u - ^ c u ^

c

J: >>

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S ^^^-S SH

8 sS i^ Js

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TJ 8 c4- S-S S a ~ o
g o c of<Z u -a >2

J

I

R
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4
1

ster, Somerset

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5 1 l S PI s s^ c i s > a l^s a s ?| g 8 i*

06 K (4 & &

8 ( ;i?i

340

HUNTING.

KENNELS

Egglestone, near Dar-
lington
Walters Hall, Mc.nkton,
Thanet
Holme, Stansfeld, Tod-
morden, Yorkshire
Trafford Park, Man-
chester
Trelissick, Truro,
Cornwall

Jesmond House, near
Newcastle-on-Tyne
Maes Elwy, St. Asaph

s
i

f

c

"J
H

3

Lancaster
Somerleyton Hall, near
Lowestoft, Suffolk
Coxlev. near WelU.

i

a

c^

s s S
:s 1^.

E jr
o -a Ji
w -o S

RadipoJe, Weymouth,
Dorset

Poplar Row, Whitby,
Yorkshire

w5

.c >
c j:

tcl

M

ll

- J=

2

Great Wilbraham, Cam-

bridgeshire

Winchester Hants

: : . : *

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APPENDIX A.

34i

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Ballywilliam, Comber,

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Grieve, Ballinamallard

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Robert Smethu
Charles Lawrenc

J. Carnforth

John Gillegan .

Tom M'Keon .
Henry King .. .
Pat Brady
lames Roach
Robert Allen, k

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c3

One of the field
Mr. J. D. Henry

David Shields
George Pratts, ^
William Rogers

Phil Hanlon ....
Peter Murphy ..

One of the field
P. Ambrose ....

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ROOKE'S, MR
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19 in. Harriers

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OWN, NORTH

20 in. to 22 in. //<;
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LIN AND TARBKRT .
20 in. Chiejly liar

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312

HUNTING.

KENNELS

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HUNTSMAN

John Cook
The Master ....

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MASTER

r. J. Richardson

r. Richard Gill-

nau

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HUNTING
DAYS

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NAMR OF HUNT,
leighr and breed of
hounds

ULTAGH AND OLD R
ND ClIICHKSTKR

n. Foxkonnds

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n. Harriers

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APPENDIX A.

343

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344

HUNTING.

APPENDIX B.

NAMES

OF HOUNDS.

DOGS.

Acheron

Blusterous

Cicero

Dragon

Actor

Boaster

Claimant

Dreadnought

Adam

Boisterous

Clamorous

Driver

Adjutant

Bonniface

dasher

Eager

ALo\us

Boreas

Claudian

Eagle

Agaric

Borgia

Claudio

Earnest

Alaric

Bouncer

Claudius

Edgar

Albany

Brilliant

Claverhouse

Editor

Albion

Burgundy

Clinker

Elegant

Amelot

Bustler

Combatant

Elia

Amyas

Caesar

Comforter

Eminent

Angelo

Caliban

Conqueror

Emperor

Antic

Calidore

Conrad

Ennius

Antony

Camelot

Coroner

Enterprise

Aramis

Capital

Corydon

Envious

Arbiter

Captain

Counsellor

Escalus

Archer

Caradoc

Countryman

Escobar

Ardent

Carver

Courtier

Etheling

Arrogant

Castor

Crasher

Ethelred

Artful

Caterer

Critical

Excellent

Astrophel

Cato

Cruiser

Fabius

Athos

Caviller

Crusty

Factious

Atlas

Cephalus

Currier

Falkland

Attila

Cerberus

Cymbeline

Falstaff

Augur

Challenger

Daedalus

Fearnought

Auster

Champion

Dandy

Ferryman

Bachelor

Charon

Dangerous

Fiddler

Baffler

Chaser

Dasher

Firebrand

Barbarous

Chatterer

Dash wood

Fisherman

Bellamy

Chieftain

Desperate

Flatterer

Bellman

Chiron

Dexterous

Florizel

Bluecap

Chirper

Disputant

Flourisher

Blueskin

Choleric

Doncaster

Flyer

Blundcrbore

Chorister

Doncourt

Foreman

APPENDIX B.

345

Forester

Frederick

Funnyman

Funo

Furrier

Gabriel

Galahad

Galaor

Galapas

Gallant

Gal'.iard

Galloper

Gameboy

Gamely

Gamester

Ganem

Ganymede

Gareth

Gargery

Garrulous

Caspar

Gatheral

General

Genius

Genseric

Gentleman

Geoffrey

Geryon

Glorious

Gobbo

Goblin

Goldy

Gondomar

Gorgibus

Gorlois

Governor

Gregory

Gremio

Grubbinol

Grumbo

Guardian

Guyon

Hadrian

Halliday

Hamlet

Hannibal

Harasser

Harbinger

DOGS continued.

Harlequin

Jovial

Harold

Juba

Harpagon

Julian

Hathaway

Julio

Hatteraick

Julius

Havoc

Jumper

Hazlewood

Juniper

Headstrong

Junius

Hector

Jupiter

Heedful

Juvenal

Helicon

Kaled

Hercules

Kennedy

Hereward

Kitely

Hero

Labdacus

Heron

Labourer

Hesiod

Ladon

Hesperus

Lselius

Hickory

Lambro

Highflyer

Lammikin

Hobbema

Lance

Hobinol

Lancelot

Holiday

Lara

Honeyman

Laurence

Honeywood

Lazarus

Horace

Leofric

Hotspur

Leoline

Hudibras

Leopold

Huguenot

Leveller

Hypocrite

Liberal

I b rah am

Libeitine

Iliad

Lictor

Imlac

Lightfoot

Impetus

Lindor

Incubus

Lion

Ingoldsby

Lionel

Inkle

Listener

Irus

Littimcr

Isaac

Loafer

Isenbras

Loda

Ishmael

Lodowick

Issachar

Lohengrin

Ithocles

Lorimer

Janitor

Lovibond

Jason

Lounger

Jericho

Lucifer

Jingle

Lucio

Jollyboy

Lucumo

Jonathan

Lunatic

Luria

Lusty

Maccabee

Madoc

Mahomet

Malakoff

Mameluke

Manager

Manciple

Manlius

Mannering

Manuel

Marcian

Marimin

Marinel

Marksman

Marmel

Marmion

Marplot

Martial

Marvellous

Matchem

Mazarin

Medler

Melchior

Melibee

Memnon

Menacer

Mentor

Mercury

Merlin

Merryboy

Merry man

Messmate

Methodist

Militant

Minikin

Minion

Mirabel

Miscreant

Mohican

Monarch

Monitor

Mortimer

Mulciber

Mungo

Mutinous

Myrmido

346

HUNTING.

Nadab

Nathan

Nautilus

Nibelung

Nicholas

Nickleby

Nimrod

Nobleman

Nobody

Norman

Norval

Oberon

OEdipus

Ogleby

Olave

Olifant

Oliver

Ollapod

Orator

Oregon

Orleans

Orlick

Orson

Osman

Osrick

Ossian

Otho

Ouragan

Overreach

Paeon

Pageant

Palamon

Palmerin

Pandarus

Paragon

Paramount

Paris

Partner

Pasquin

Patriot

Pelleas

Pellinore

Peregrine

Perfect

Pei Lies

Perigot

Perilous

Perion

D OGS continued.

Pertinent

Random

Scaramouch

Peterson

Ranker

Scattercash

Petulant

Ransack

Scavenger

Phaethon

Rantaway

Schacabac

Phalaris

Ranter

Scipio

Pharamond

Raphael

Scrambler

Phcebus

Rasselas

Screamer

Phormio

Rattler

Scudamore

Phosphorus

Ravager

Scuffler

Pilgrim

Ravenous

Seneca

Pillager

Ravenshoe

Sentinel

Pilot

Ravenswood

Sesame

Pincher

Ravisher

Sharper

Pindar

Reasoner

Shifter

Piper

Rector

Silvio

Pitiless

Regent

Sindbad

Plato

Regular

Sintram

Plausible

Remus

Sisyphus

Playful

Resolute

Skirmisher

Plunder

Resonant

Slender

Pluto

Restive

Smiler

Politic

Reveller

Sociable

Potentate

Rifleman

Socrates

Potiphar

Ringwood

Solomon

Prattler

Rioter

Solon

Premier

Risingham

Songster

President

Robin

Sorcerer

Pretty man

Robinson

Sosia

Priam

Roderick

Spankei

Primate

Rodomont

Spartacus

Principal

Roland

Specimen

Prodigal

Romeo

Speedwell

Prodigy

Romper

Splenetic

Prompter

Romulus

Spoiler

Prophet

Rouser

Spokesman

Prospero

Rover

Sportsman

Prosperous

Ruffian

Statesman

Prowler

Ruffler

Steady

Pyramus

Rummager

Stephano

Pythias

Rupert

Stickler

Quentin

Rustic

Stormer

Quixote

Sampson

Strange

Rabelais

Sancho

Striver

Racer

Sapient

Stroller

Racket

Saunterer

Student

Rallywood

Scamperdale

Subtle

Rambler

Scamperer

Swaggerer

Rampant

Scanderbeg

Sybaris

APPENDIX B.

347

Sylvsn

Tacitus

Taillefer

Tammany

Tantalus

Tappertit

Tarquin

Tartar

Tasso

Tatler

Teaser

Telamon

Telephone

Telephu5

Terence

Terror

Teucer

Thalaba

Thamyris

Theodore

Theseus

Thrasher

Thunderer

Thurio

Thyrsis

Tickler

Timon

Timothy

Tinto

Titus

Abigal

Accurate

Actress

Adamant

Adelaide

Affable

Agatha

Airy

Alison

Amazon

Angela

Annabel

Artemis

DOGS continued.

Tityrus

Tyrant

Warrior

Tomalin

Uncas

Waverley

Tomboy

Unicorn

Wayward

Tony

Uriel

Wellbred

Torment

Urien

Wetheral

Torquil

Uther

Whipster

Torturer

Vagabond

Whitaker

Touchstone

Vagrant

Whiteboy

Tozer

Vainlove

Whittington

Tragic

Valentine

Wildair

Trajan

Valiant

Wildboy

Trampler

Valorous

Wildman

Transport

Vanquisher

Wilfred

Traveller

Vaulter

Wilful

Trimbush

Vaunter

Winterton

Trimmer

Venturer

Wisdom

Tristram

Venturous

Woodman

Triumph

Vermin

Worker

Trojan

Victor

Workman

Trouncer

Vigilant

Worthy

Truant

Vigorous

Wrangler

Trueboy

Villager

Wrestler

Truelove

Viper

Yarico

Trueman

Vortigern

Yorick

Trulliber

Vulcan

Zabulon

Trusty

Waldemar

Zachary

Tryamour

Wamba

Zanga

Try well

Wanderer

Zophiel

Tubal

Warbler

Zosimus

Turbulent

Waring

BITCHES.

Atropes

Bonnylass

Charity

Barbara

Bountiful

Chatterbox

Bashful

Bradamant

Chauntress

Beatrice

Busy

Cicely

Beauty

Buxom

Circe

Beldam

Candour

Claribel

Bellicent

Capable

Clarinet

Bendemeer

Caramel

Clio

Bertha

Careless

Comely

Blameless

Carnage

Comical

Blanche

Caroline

Concord

Bluebell

Catherine

Corisande

Bonnybell

Celia

Courtesy

348

HUNTING.

Crafty

Credulous

Cruelty

Curious

Cynthia

Dainty

Dairymaid

Daphne

Darling

Delia

Delicate

Destiny

Diamond

Dian

Dido

Diligent

Dimity

Doris

Duchess

Dulcimer

Dutiful

Easy

Echo

Ecstacy

Edith

Eglantine

Eleanor

Emily

Endless

Energy

Enid

Enmity

Equity

Etiquette

Fairmaid

Fairplay

Faithful

Fanciful

Fantasy

Fashion

Fatima

Favourite

Fearless

Festive

Fickle

Fidget

Fiery

Firefiy

B ITCHES continued

Flattery

Helinore

Flighty

Heloise

Flippant

Hemera

Flora

Hera

Florence

Hermia

Florida

Hero

Florimel

Heroine

Flourish

Hestia

Forcible

Hilda

Frantic

Honesty

Fretful

Hoyden

Friendly

Imogen

Frisky

Impudent

Frolic

Industry

Frolicsome

Inez

Funnylass

Innocent

Furious

Iris

Fury

Isabel

Gaiety

Isidore

Gaily

Isis

Gamesome

Isoline

Gaylass

Joceline

Geraldine

Jollity

Giddy

Joyful

Gillian

Joyous

Gluttony

Judith

Goneril

Julia

Gorgon

Juliet

Gossamer

Juno

Governess

Kenna

Graceful

Kestrel

Graceless

Kilty

Gracious

Lachesis

Gratitude

Lady

Gravity

Ladylike

Gretchen

Lais

Grethel

Lalage

Guinevere

Lamia

Gwendoline

Languish

Haemony

Lappet

Handsome

Laura

Harmony

Leda

Hasty

Lelia

Hazardous

Lenity

Hebe

Lesbia

H ecate

Levity

Hecuba

Liberty

Helena

Lightning

Lightsome

Likely

Lilian

Lilith

Lisa

Lively

Livia

Lorna

Lotta

Lovely

Lucida

Lullaby

Lunacy

Lydia

Madcap

Madeline

Madelon

Madrigal

Maenad

Magdalen

Magic

Magical

Malaprop

Marcia

Margaret

Marian

Marjory

Mary

Matchless

Mattie

Mayflower

Meddlesome

Megra

Melody

Memory

Merrilies

Merriment

Merrylass

Mignon

Millamant

Miriam

Mischief

Modish

Monody

Music

Musical

Myria

Nancy

APPENDIX B.
BITCHES continued

349

Nelly

Racket

Stella

Venturesome

Nicety

Radigund

Strenuous

Venus

Nimble

Rally

Surety

Verity

Niobe

Rantipole

Sybil

Vicious

Nipper

Rapid

Sycorax

Victory

Norali

Rapine

Symphony

Vigilance

Norna

Rapture

Tannaquil

Viola

Nourmahal

Rarity

Tattle

Violent

Novelty

Rashness

Tamora

Violet

Oracle

Rattle

Telltale

Violin

Oread

Regan

Tempest

Viperus

Oriel

Resolute

Tentative

Virulent

Overdone

Restless

Termagant

Vivian

Pamela

Rhapsody

Terrible

Vivid

Partner

Rhodope

Testy

Vixen

Passionate

Riot

Thankful

Vocal

Patience

Rival

Thecla

Volatile

Patty

Roguish

Thisbe

Voluble

Pattypan

Rosa

Thoughtful

Waggery

Peggotty

Rosabel

Tiffany

Wagtail

Penitent

Rosalind

Topsy

Wanton

Perdita

Rosamond

Tractable

Warlike

Philomel

Rosemary

Tragedy

Waspish

Phryne

Ruby

Trespass

Wasteful

Phyllida

Ruthless

Trifle

Watchful

Phyllis

Salamis

Trivia

Welcome

Placid

Sanguine

Troublesome

Whimsey

Placida

Sappho

Truelass

Whimsical

Playful

Scylla

Truemaid

Whirligig

Pleasant

Selima

Trulla

Wildfire

Pliant

Semele

Tunable

Willing

Portia

Sensitive

Tuneful

Winifred

Positive

Silvia

Una

Winipeg

Prettylass

Snowball

Ursa

Wishful

Priestess

Songstress

Ursula

Wonderfu

Probity

Speedy

Utha

Worry

Prophetess

Spiteful

Vanda

Wrathful

Proserpine

Spitfire

Vehement

Zamora

Prudence

Sportive

Vengeance

Zara

Psyche

Sprightly

Vengeful

Zetica

Queenie

Stately

Venomous

Zillah

Quickly

350 HUNTING.

APPENDIX C.

HUNTING TERMS.

BABBLER : a noisy hound, one given to babbling, or flinging its

tongue without cause.
BAY : the second point, counting from the skull, on the main stem

of the stag's antler.
BEAM : the stem of the antler.
BILLET : the dung of the fox.
BLANCHED : a stag when turned, or headed from its line is said to

have been blanched, but the term is rarely heard now-a-days.
BLANK : void, empty ; a blank day, to draw a cover blank.
BROCKET : the male of the red deer up to three years old.
BROW : the first point of the antler, springing from the beam close

to the skull.

BRUSH : the tail of the fox.
BULLFINCH : a high and hairy hedge, impossible to get over and

difficult to get through, whence perhaps the name, as of a fence

impervious to a bullfinch, or any other bird. It might, however,

be a corruption of ' bull fence,' a fence to keep the cattle in

their pastures, as it is most common in the grazing countries.

It has a ditch on one side or other, sometimes on both, and

altogether is a disagreeable obstacle.
BURROW : the underground home of the rabbit.
BURST : the first and, generally, the fastest part of the run, when

fox, hound, horse, and man are at their freshest.
CALF : the young of the red deer whether male or female.
CARRY : to carry a good head 'is said of a pack of hounds all pressing

and crowding to a hot scent.
CAST : the spreading of the hounds in search of a lost scent, either

a natural movement or promoted by the huntsman ; also used

as a verb, to cast.

APPENDIX C. 351

CHALLENGE : the hound which first speaks to the scent in cover is
said to challenge.

CHECK : a stoppage in the run owing to the temporary loss of the
scent ; also used as a verb, to check.

CHOPPED : a fox killed before he has had time to break cover is
said to have been chopped.

COCKTAIL : any horse not thorough-bred.

COUCH : the kennel, or lodging, of the otter.

COUNTER : hounds are running counter when they are hunting the
scent the reverse way, i.e. away from the game.

CROCKETS : an old-fashioned phrase for the upright or top points
of a stag's antler.

CROP : a hunting-whip.

CROPPER : a bad fall ; the words crumpler' and croivner are also
used in the same significance, the latter generally with the
addition of the epithet imperial.

CUB : the young of the fox.

DOE : the female of the fallow-deer, hare, or rabbit.

DOUBLE : a fox or hare doubles when it turns short back on its
line.

DRAG : the scent left by the fox returning home from his midnight
prowlings. Also a fictitious scent produced by trailing or drag-
ging along the ground a rabbit-skin, wisp of straw, piece of rag,
or any receptive substance soaked in aniseed. Drag hounds is
the term applied to a pack (generally a very scratch one) kept
particularly for this sort of chase, which is at least as good a
sport as hunting the carted deer, and for the most part much
better fun.

DRAW : used of the hounds ranging for their game.

EARTH : the underground home or burrow of the fox.

EARTH-STOPPER : the man whose business it is to see that all the
neighbouring earths are duly stopped on hunting-days. This
must be done overnight, when the foxes are abroad after their
food.

FEATHER : when a hound has a fancy that he scents his game, but
is not yet quite certain enough to give tongue or speak to it, his
stern will be observed to be violently agitated : this is called
'feathering on the scent.'

FEUMENT, or FEUMISHING : the dung of the deer.

FOIL : an animal runs its foils when it returns on its own tracks.

FORM : the seat, or kennel, of the hare.

352 HUNTING.

FULL-CRY : originally used of the chorus of tongues when all the
pack acknowledge a burning scent ; but the phrase now is
generally taken to mean that period of the chase when the
hounds are fairly settled on the line, and all, hunted and hunters,
are doing their best a period when hounds are as a rule going too
fast to have much wind to spare for any musical performances.

HARBOURER : the man whose business it is to mark down for the
huntsman the covert where a warrantable stag is lodged, or
harboured.

HARK-FORWARD : the huntsman's cheer to his hounds to encourage
them on the scent.

HEADED : used of the fox and hare, as blanched of the deer.

HEEL : see Counter and Foil.

HIND : the female of 'the red deer.

HOLT : see Couch.

HOVER : same as Holt.

JACK-HARE : a male hare.

JUMPING-POWDER : a facetious name for any stimulant taken to
cheer a fainting heart, on the old principle of keepin spirits up
by pouring spirits down.

KENNEL : the lair of the fox either above or below ground.

LATCH FORDS : a name applied to the spurs from a celebrated
maker of those useful implements.

LEVERET: the young of the hare up to a year old.

LIFT : to take the hounds from the point where they have lost the
scent quickly forward without waiting to cast on the chance of
hitting it off again. A hazardous game to play, but sometimes
very effective with a clever huntsman on bad scenting days.

MASK : the head of the fox.

MORT : the note blown on the horn at the death of the deer.

OXER : a diabolical sort of fence peculiar to the grazing countries,
and named from its being designed to keep the cattle in their
pastures. It consists of a tolerably high and strong hedge with
a rail on one side, perhaps on both, standing out just far enough
in the field to turn a horse neatly over after he has cleared the
hedge, and a ditch somewhere.

PAD : the foot of the fox.

PATE : the head of the fox.

PEARLS : the rough circular bases of the stag's horns.

RIGHTS : a stag is said to have his rights when his antlers show
the full number of points, brow, bay, and tray, and three on top.'

APPENDIX C. 3^3

RIOT : when fox-hounds hunt any scent but that of the fox they are

said to be running riot.
RUNNABLE : a deer fit to be hunted ; in the case of the stag, this

is at five years, when the antler shows not less than two points

on top, though sometimes, when stags are scarce, they are

hunted at four ; hinds have of late years increased so greatly

on Exmoor that they are now hunted as soon as they are

strong enough to run before the hounds.
SCORING : hounds are said to be scoring to cry when the scent is.

very, hot and every hound in the pack is speaking to it.
SCUT : the tail of the hare or rabbit.
SEAL : the foot-marks of the otter.
SINGLE : the tail of the deer.
SKIRTER : a hound that runs wide of the pack, ' playing his own

hand,' so to speak.
SLOT : the foot-mark of the deer.
So-HO : the cry raised when a hare is viewed (probably a corruption

of ' See, ho ! ')

SOIL : a hunted deer is said to take J0z7 when it takes to the water.
SPRAINT : the dung of the otter.
STAGGART : a male deer at four years old.
STERN : the tail of the hound.
TINE : the point, or branch, on the stag's antler.
TRAY : the third point on the antler.
TALLY-HO : the cheer announcing that the fox is viewed.
TuFTER : the hound sent into cover to find and drive the deer out ;

two or three couple of the oldest and wisest in the pack are

used for this purpose.
VENT : to breathe, used of the otter ; the bubbles of air floating

on the surface of the water, which indicate his course below, are

called his ventings.
VIXEN : the female of the fox.
WARRANTABLE : see Runnable.
WHELP : a hound puppy at a very tender age.
WHO-HOOP : the cheer announcing the death of the fox.
WHIPPER-IN : the huntsman's subaltern, so called from one of his

many offices being to impress upon the hounds the necessity of

strict obedience to rules, an impression which has sometimes to

be made with the whip.

A A

354 HUNTING.

APPENDIX D.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HUNTING AND HUNTERS. 1

Art de Venerie le quel Maistre Guillaume Twici venour le Roy
cTAngleterre fist en son temps per Aprandre autres. This is
the manuscript mentioned by Strutt in his Sports and Pastimes
as the earliest known to exist on the subject. The King of
England was Edward II., so the manuscript must have been
written between 1307 and 1327. See Chap. I.

Le Art de Venerie, en MSS. Phillipps, no. 8336. Edited by Sir
T. Phillipps. Middle Hill, 4to., 1844. Privately printed. Ap-
parently another copy of the same work.

The Art of Hunting, by W. T., huntsman to King Edward II.
With preface, translation, notes, and illustrations, by H. Dryden.
Daventry. Privately printed, 1843, 4to-

The Maister of the Game, a manuscript attributed to Edward de
Langley, Duke of York, son of Edward III. See Chap. I.

The Bokys of Haukyng and Huntyng, and also of Cootarmuris,
commonly called The Boke of S, Albans, St. Albans, 1481, fol.
See Chap. I.

The Treatises of Hawking, Hunting, Coat-armour, Fishing, and
Biasing of Arms. Edited by Joseph Haslewood, printed by
Wynkyn de Worde. Westminster, 1486, fol. Another edition of
the above.

Treatyses perteynge to Hawkynge, Huniynge, and Fishy nge with an
Angle. London, 1496. Another edition. A facsimile of The
Boke was published in 1881 under the supervision of Mr. William
Blades.

1 Merely technical books, or books which have no special reference, among
other things, to hunting in any of its branches, are not included in this cata-
logue : e.g. general books on the horse, or horsemanship. The date given is
always, where possible, that of the first edition.

APPENDIX D. 355

77/i? Book of Haukynge, Huntynge, and Fishynge, with all the
Properties and Metlecynes that are necessary to be Kepte, Printed
by William Powell, or Powel. London, 1550, 410.

The Noble Art of Vencrie or Hunting ; wherein is handled and set
out, the Vertues, Natures, and Properties of fifteene Sundrie
Chaces, together with the Order and Maner how to Hunte and
Kill everyone of them. Translated and collected, for pleasure of
all Noblemen and Gentlemen, out of the best approved Authors,
which have written anything concerning the same, and reduced
into such Order and proper Termes as are used here in the noble
Realme of Englande. London, 1 575, 410. This is usually found
printed with George Turberville's Bookes of Faulconrie, to whom,
therefore, it has been generally attributed. Some copies have
also verses by George Gascoigne, In Comendation of the Noble
Arte of Venerie.

A Short Treatise of Hunting, coinpyled for the Delight of Noble-
men and Gentlemen, by Sir Thomas Cokaine. London, 1 591, 410.

The Gentleman's Academy; or the Book of St. Albans, of Hawk-
ing, Hunting, and Armoury, from the Original of Juliana
Barnes, by Gervase Markham. London, 1595, 4to.

The Book of Hawking, Hunting, and Fishing, corrected. Printed
by Edward Aldee, or Allde. London, 1596, 410. Probably
another edition of The Boke of St. A loans.

The Booke of Hawking, Hunting, Fowling and Fishing; where-
unto is added the Measures of Blowing, now newly collected
by William Gryndall. London, 1596, fol.

Country Contentments; or the Husbandmen's Recreations : con-
sisting of the Art of Riding, Hunting, Shooting, Hawking,
Coursing with Greyhounds, c., by Gervase Markham. London,
1611.

Cavallarie ; concerning Horses and Horsemanship, as much as is
necessary for any man to understand, whether he be horse-
breeder, horse-ryder, horse-hunter, horse-runner, horse-ambler,
horse-farrier, horse-keeper, coachman, smith, or sadler. To-
gether with the discovery of the subtil trade or mystery of
horse-coursers, and an explanation of the excellency of a horse's
understanding ; or how to teach them to do tricks like Barkes
his Curtail : and that horses may be made to draw dry foot like
a hound. Secrets before unpublished, and nowe carefully set
downe, for the profit of this whole nation ; by Gervase Markham,
London, 1617, 410.

A A 2

356 HUNTING.

Cynogeticon, or the Art of Hunting; translated into English Verse
from the Cynogeticon of Grathis Faliscus, by Christopher Wase.
London, 1654, 8vo.

The Gentleman's Recreation, in Hunting, Hawking, Fowling, Fish-
ing, by Richard Blome, or Bloome. London, 1683, 8vo. See
Chap. I.

The School of Recreation; or the Gentleman's Ttitor to those most
ingenious Exercises of Hunting, &C. London, 1684, i6mo.

The Hunter, a discourse of Horsemanship, directing the right way
to breed, keep, and train a Horse for ordinary Hunting ; and
plates. Oxford, 1685.

77/i? Gentleman's Recreation; in four parts, viz., Hunting, Hawking,
Fowling, and Fishing, whereto is prefixed a large sculpture,
giving directions for Blowing the Horn, with folding plates.
1697, 8vo.

The Compleat Sportsman; containing Hunting, Shooting, and Fish-
ing, by Giles Jacob. 1718, I2mo.

The School of Recreation; or A Guide to the most ingenious exercises
of Hunting, Riding, Racing, Hawking, Tennis, Cock-fighting,
Angling, &c., by R. H. 1/20, i8mo.

An Essay on Htmting, by a Country Squire. London, 1733.

The Chace, a poem by William Somerville, with frontispiece of
Diana. London, 1735, 4to.

The Sport man's Dictionary; or the Country Gentleman's Companion
in all Rural Recreations. London, 1735, 2 vols. Svo.

Cynegetics; or a Poem on Hunting. The First Book of Oppian's
Cynegetics, translated into English verse, with a dissertation and
Oppian's Life prefixed. Dedicated to Sir Robert Walpole, by
John Mawer, A.M. London, 1736, Svo.

The Art and Pleasure oj Hare-hunting,^ John Smallman Gardiner.
London, 1750, Svo.

Thoughts on Hunting, by Peter Beckford. Sarum, 1781, 4to.

Essays on Hunting; containing a Philosophical Enquiry into the
Nature and Properties of Scent ; Observations on the Different
kind of Hounds, with the manner of training them ; also
Directions for the choice of a Hunter, the Qualifications re-
quisite for a Huntsman, and other General Rules to be observed
in every contingency incident to the Chase ; with an Introduc-
tion, describing the method of Hare Hunting practised by the
Greeks. London, 1782, Svo.

APPENDIX D. 357

An Academy for Grown Horsemen, containing the completed in-
structions for Walking, Trotting, Cantering, Galloping, Stumb-
ling and Tumbling Annals of Horsemanship, containing ac-
counts of Experiments and Experimental Accidents, by Geoffrey
Gambado, with plates by Bunbury, 2 vols. in I, 1787, 410.

The British Sportsman; or Nobleman, Gentleman, and Farmers
Dictionary of Recreation and Amusement, with plates. 1792, 4to.

77/i? Complete Sportsman; or Country Gentlemaris Recreations,
with frontispiece. 1795, I2mo.

The Complete Farrier and British Sportsman, interspersed with
Sporting Anecdotes and an account of the most celebrated
Horses, with plates after Stubbs, Cooper, and others. No
date, 4to.

Analysis of Horsemanship; teaching the whole Art of Riding in
Manege, Military, Hunting, Racing, and Travelling System,
together with the Method of Breaking Horses, with numerous
folding plates. 1799, 8vo.

T^i? Sportsman's Dictionary; or the Gentlematts Companion for
Town and Country, containing full and particular instructions
for Riding, Hunting, &c., with plates. 1800, 410.

The British Sportsman, by Samuel Howitt, with plates. 1 798 - 1 800,
oblong 410.

The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, from the earliest
period to the present time, by Joseph Strutt, with woodcuts.
London , 1801, 410.

The Meynellian Science of Fox-hunting on System, by Hawkes.
Privately printed ; probably about the early years of the present
century, as Mr. Meynell gave up his hounds in 1800.

The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository of General Inform-
ation upon every subject appertaining to the Sports of the Field,
by William Taplin, with plates, 2 vols. 1803, 8vo.

The Sportsman's Dictionary ; containing Instructions for the various
methods to be observed in Riding, Hunting, Fishing, Racing,
Hawking, c., by Henry James Pye, with seventeen plates.
1807, 410.

Songs of the Chase; containing an extensive collection relative to
the Sports of the Field, including the several subjects of
Hunting, Racing, Angling, Hawking, &c., with plates. 1811,
I2mo.

Rural Sports, by Rev. W. B. Daniel ; complete with Supplement,
plates by Scott and others. 1812-13, royal 8vo

35-S HUNTING.

The Complete Sportsman; containing view of the Ancient and
Modern Chase, Breed and Training of Hounds, &c. 1817,
8vo.

British Field Sports; embracing practical Instructions in Shooting,
Hunting, &c., by William Henry Scott, with plates. 1818, 8vo.

An Essay on Hunting, comprising its Lawfulness, Benefits, Plea-
sure, &c., with plates. 1820, 8vo.

The National Sports of Great Britain, fifty engravings with de-
scriptions, by Henry Alken. 1825, royal 8vo.

The Young Sportsman' 's Miscellany, in Hunting, Shooting, Racing,
Coursing, Angling, Cocking, &*., including a reprint of Barkers
Tract on Angling, frontispiece and 22 woodcuts. 1826, I2mo.

Observations on Fox-hunting, and the Management of Hounds in
the Kennel and the Field, addressed to Young Sportsmen about
to undertake a Hunting Establishment, by Colonel Cook, with
plates. 1826, royal 8vo.

The Hunting Directory; containing a compendious view of the
ancient and modern Systems of the Chase, the Pursuit of the
Fox, the Hare, and the Stag, also Notices of the Wolf and Boar
Hunting of France, by T. B. Johnson, with plates. London,
1826, 8vo.

The Sportsman's Cyclopczdia; being an Elucidation of the Science
and Practice of the Field, the Turf, and the Sod, accom-
panied with Illustrative Anecdotes, by the same, with plates.
1831, 8vo.

Remarks on the Condition of Hunters, the Choice of Horses, and
their Management, by ' Nimrod ' (Charles James Apperley).
London, 1^31, 8vo.

Wild Sports of th-e West, with Legendary Tales and Local Sketches.
by W. H. Maxwell, with plates, 2 vols. 1832, 8vo.

The Sportsmaifs Cabinet, and Town and Country Magazine; a
periodical devoted to the Genuine Sports of the Field, by
T. B. Johnson, with plates. 1833, 8vo.

Field Book of Sports and Pastimes of the United Kingdom; com-
piled from the best authorities ancient and modern, by Maxwell,
with woodcuts. London, 1833, 8vo.

A Dictionary of Sports, or Companion to the Field, the Forest,
and the Riverside, by Harry Harewood. 1835, Svo.

Hunting Tours, interspersed with characteristic anecdotes of
Sporting Men, by 'Nimrod.' To which are added N.'s letters
on Riding to Hounds. London, 1835, 8vo.

APPENDIX D. 359

The Warwickshire //z//, from 1795 to 1836, describing many of
the most splendid Runs with these highly celebrated Hounds,
by ' Venator,' with frontispiece. 1837, Svo.

The Chase, the Turf, and the Road, by ' Nimrod,' with illustrations
by H. Alken. London, 1837, Svo. Reprinted from the
Quarterly Review, March 1832. In The Chase is the famous
description of an ideal run with the Quorn, under Mr. Os-
baldiston's mastership. A separate edition of The Chase was
published in 1851.

Memoirs of the Life of the late James Mytton, by ' Nimrod :
with illustrations by H. Alken and T. J. Rawlins. London,
1837, Svo.

Extracts from the Diary of a Huntsman, by Thomas Smith, late
Master of the Craven Hounds, and at present of the Pychely
(sic), Northamptonshire, with illustrations by the Author.
London, 1838, Svo.

Northern Tours, descriptive of the principal Hunts in Scotland and
the North of England ; with the table talk of distinguished
sporting characters, and anecdotes of masters of hounds, &c. }
by ' Nimrod.' London, 1838, Svo.

The Noble Science; a Few General Ideas on Foxhunting for the
Use of the Rising Generation of Sportsmen, by F. P. Delme
Radcliffe ; with numerous illustrations, and coloured plates.
London, 1839, 8vo.

Hints on Horsemanship to a Nephew and Niece; or Common Sense
and Common Errors in Common Riding, by Colonel George
Greenwood, with plates. 1839, Svo.

An Encyclopedia of Rural Sports; or A Complete Account (his~
torical, practical and descriptive) of Hunting, Shooting, Fishing,
Racing, &*c., by Delabere P. Elaine, with illustrations. London,
1840, Svo. The third edition was illustrated by John Leech.
The last edition was published in 1875.
The Old English Gentleman; or, The Field and the Woods, a novel,

by John Mills, 3 vols. London, 1841, I2mo.

The Horse and the Hound; their various uses and treatment, in-
cluding practical instructions in Horsemanship, and a treatise
on Horse-dealing, by 'Nimrod.' Edinburgh, 1842, i2mo.
The Life of a Sportsman, by ' Nimrod' ; with coloured illustrations

by H. Alken. London, 1842, Svo.

Handley Cross, by Robert Smith Surtees, 3 vols. London, 1843,
Svo. This edition has no illustrations.

tfo HUNTING.

Hunting Reminiscences, by ' Nimrod.' London, 1843, 8vo.

77/if Book of Sports, British and Foreign, 2 vols. London, 1843, 410.

Stable Talk and Table Talk ; or Spectacles for young Sportsmen,

by ' Harry Hieover ' (Charles Brindley), 2 vols. London 1 845-6,

8vo.
The Sportsman s Library ; containing Hunting, Shooting, Coursing,

and Fishing, by John Mills, with portraits and plates. London,

1845, 8vo.

Hunting Songs and Ballads, by R. E. Egerton-Warburton. London,

1846, 4to. A sixth edition was published in 1878.

The Life of a Fox-hound, by John Mills. London, 1848, 8vo.
The Pocket and the Stud; or Practical Hints on the Management

of the Stable, by ' Harry Hieover.' London, 1848.
Notitia Venatica; a treatise on Fox-hunting, by Robert Thomas

Vyner, with plates by Alken. London, 1847, 8vo.
The Stud for Practical Purposes and Practical Men, by 'Harry

Hieover,' with plates. 1849, I2mo.
A Guide to the Foxhounds and Staghounds of England, to which

are added the Otterhounds and Harriers of several Counties, by

Gelert. 1849, 8vo.
Practical Horsemanship, by 'Harry Hieover,' with plates. 1850,

I2mo.

The Hunting field, by the same, with plates. 1850, I2mo.
A Treatise on the Proper Condition for all Horses, by the same,

with plates. 1852, I2mo.
Stable Practice; or Hints on Training for the Turf, the Chase,

and the Road, by ' Cecil' (Cornelius Tongue). 1852, I2mo.
Letters on the Management of Hounds, by ' Scrutator' (K. W. Hor-

lock). London, 1852, 8vo.

Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour, by Robert Smith Surtees ; with illus-
trations by John Leech. London, 1853, 8vo.
Sporting Facts and Sporting Fancies, by ' Harry Hieover.' London

(printed at Woking), 1853, 8vo.
Records of the Chase, and Memoirs of Celebrated Sport men j by

' Cecil,' with plates. London, 1854, 121110.
TV** Post and the Paddock, by ' The Druid' (H. H. Dixon), with

plates. London, 1856, i2mo.
The Sportsman! s Ft tend in a Frost, by ' Harry Hieover,' with

frontispiece. 1857, 8vo.

The Sporting World, by the same. 1858, I2mo.
The Master of the Hounds, a novel, by ' Scrutator,' 3 vols. London.

1858, 8vo."

APPENDIX D. 361

Horses and Hounds; a practical Treatise on their Management, by

' Scrutator : ' to which is added Taming of Wild Horses, by

J. S. Rarey. Illustrated by Harrison Weir. London, 1858, 8vo.
The Flyers of (he Hunt, a story, by John Mills : illustrated by John

Leech. London, 1859, 8vo.
Silk and Scarlet, by 'The Druid,' with plates. London, 1859,

I2mo.
A Manual of British Rural Sports, by ' Stonehenge ' (J. H. Walsh).

London, 1859, 8vo.
Reminiscences of (he late Thomas A ssheton Smith; or the Pursuits

of an English Country Gentleman, by Sir John Eardley Wilmot,

with plates. London, 1860, 8vo.
The Horse and His Rider; by Sir Francis B. Head, with plates.

London, 1861, 8vo.
Notes on the Chase of the Wild Red Deer in the Counties of Devon

and Somerset; with an Appendix descriptive of remarkable Runs

and Incidents connected with the Chase from the year 1780 to

the year 1860, by Charles Palk Collyns, with tinted plates and

woodcuts. London, 1861, 8vo.
Recollections of a Fox-hunter, by ' Scrutator.' London (printed at

Guildford), 1861, 8vo.
Scott and Sebright, by 'The Druid,' with plates. London, 1862,

I2mo.
The County Gentleman, a novel, by ' Scrutator,' 3 vols. London,

1862, 8vo.
Hunting Tours, descriptive of various fashionable countries and

establishments, with anecdotes of Masters of hounds and others

connected with Fox-hunting, by ' Cecil,' with coloured frontis-
piece. London, 1864, I2mo.
Mr. Facey Romford's Hounds, by Robert Smith Surtees, with

illustrations by John Leech and Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz').

London, 1865, 8vo.
Practical Lessons in Hunting and Sporting, by ' Scrutator.'

London, 1865, 8vo.
Crumbs from a Sportsman's Table, by the Rev. Charles Clarke,

2 vols. London, 1865, 8vo.
Sporting Incidents in the Life of Another Tom Smith (Thomas

Smith, author of Extracts from the Diary of a Huntsman), with

illustrations. London, 1867, 8vo.

British Sports and Pastimes, by Anthony Troll ope. London, 1 868,
" 8vo.

362 HUNTING.

Songs and Verses, by G. T. Whyte-Melville. London, 1869, 8vo.
Notes from a Hunting Box, not in the S /tires, by G. Bowers,

oblong folio, plates, 1873.

Lays of the Belvoir Hunt. London and Grantham, 1874, 4to.
The Stud Farm; or Hints on Breeding for the Turf, the Chase, and

the Road, addressed to Breeders of Race Horses and Hunters,

to Landed Proprietors, and especially to Tenant Farmers, by

'Cecil,' with frontispiece. 1873, I2mo.
Triviata; or Cross-road Chronicles of Passages in Irish Hunting

History during the Season of 1875-76, by M. O'Connor Morris,

with plates. 1877, 8vo.
Hibernia Venatica, by the same ; with Photographs of the chief

celebrities in the Hunting Field. 1878, 8vo.
Covert-Side Sketches; or Thoughts on Hunting, suggested by many

days in many countries with Fox, Deer, and Hare, by J. Nevill

Fitt. 1878, 8vo.
Riding Recollections, by G. T. Whyte-Melville. London, 1878,

8vo.
Sketches in .the Hunting Field, by A. E. T. Watson. London,

1880, 8vo.
The Hunting Countries of Great Britain; their Facilities, Character,

and Requirements. A Guide to Hunting Men. By'Brooksby'

(Captain Pennel-Elmhirst). London, 1882-3.
The Cream of Leicestershire, by the same ; with illustrations,

coloured and plain, by John Sturgess. London, 1883.
Race-course and Covert-side, by A. E. T. Watson ; with illustrations

by John Sturgess. London, 1883.
The Best Season on Record, by 'Brooksby;' with illustrations,

coloured and plain, by John Sturgess. London, 1884.
Red Deer, by Richard Jefiferies. London, 1884.
Fox Hunting in Meath, by the Earl of Donoughmore. Dublin,

1885.
Sport, by W. Bromley- Davenport. London, 1885.

INDEX.

ABB

ABBEY, Arthur, anecdote of, 229
Acland, the second Sir Thomas,

32

Albert, Prince, the ribbon always
worn by, 31, note

Aldermaston, a run from, to
Reading, 31

Alfred the Great a skilled hun-
ter, 8

Alvanley, Lord, anecdote of, 181

Anne of Bohemia, 14

Anselm, St., and the hare, 2

Armada, Spanish, deficient
muster of cavalry against the,
162

Arsenic administered to horses
by grooms, 91

Arundel, Lord, on the first
regular employment of fox-
hounds, 28

Ascot kennels, 112

Athelstan prohibits export of
horses, 161

Athenians as horse-riders, 200

Atherstone pack and country,
247

Aylesbury, Vale of, 252

BADMINTON stables, 91 ; ken-
nels, plan of, 118; plan

BIB

of bitch and puppy houses,

124

Balaclava, incident of, 196
Barrymore, Lord, anecdote of,

159

Beagles, choice of, for hunting
the hare on foot, 85 ; best
method of hunting, 87 ; list
of, in the United Kingdom,

343
Beaufort hounds, first diversion

of, to fox-hunting, 28
Beaufort, Duke of, otter terriers

of, 319.

Beckford's ' Thoughts on Hunt-
ing,' 4, 20 ; decries hare-
hunting, 25 ; on the summer
treatment of the hunter, 97 ;
on kennels, no

Bell, Dr., on the renewal of
horn in the stag, 40

Belvoir hounds, antiquity of the,
28; history of, 217; their
singular beauty, ib. ; the
country hunted by, 218

Berkeley family, fox-hunting
by the, 29 ; stag-hunting,

33
Berners, Dame, and her ' Boke

of St. Albans,' 5, 8
Bibliography, 354

HUNTING

BIG

Bicester pack and country, 250

Billesdon Coplow run, the, 227

Billcsdon kennels, plan of, 113

Bits, use of, 1 06

Blades, William, his conclusion
respecting Dame Berners, 6

Elaine's Encyclopaedia of Rural
Sports,' I ; records Queen
Elizabeth's hunting prowess,
13

Blome, Richard, ' Gentleman's
Recreation 'of, 18 ; on hare-
hunting, 23

Boothby, Thomas, an early
keeper of foxhounds, 28

Brad well Grove, 257

Brian, Reginald, Bishop of
Worcester, his love of the
chase, II

1 Brooksby ' on the Pytchlcy
Wednesday, 238 ; on the es-
sentials of a Vale hunter, 253 ;
on riding in the Heythrop
country, 255

Bulteel, John, his plan of arti-
ficial drains for otters, 303 ;
his observations of otter life,
34

CANUTE, regulation of the chase

by, 9

Carter the huntsman, 146

Cecil,' his notice of 'The
Maister of the Game,' 7

Charing Cross, old Berkeley ken-
nel at, 29

Charles II., remarkable stag-
hunt in the reign of, 31

Chaucer on the addiction of the
clergy to the chase, 1 1 ; cited
in illustration of fox-hunting,
26

CRO

Checking, 139

Chopping of foxes, 138

Christian, Dick, on thorough-
bred hurters, 168 ; on the
method of making a hunter,
176 ; his reminiscences of
a great run at Cottesmore,
230

Clark, Thomas, an example of a
bad whipping-in system, 142

Clergy, hunting by the, in former
times, II

Clowne, Abbot William de, a
breeder of hounds, 12

Cockaine, Sir Thomas, 7 on
fox-hunting, 28

Cocktail breed of hunter, 167

Colic in horses, 105

Collier, Mr., on otter-hunting,
297 ; on the breeding habits
of the otter, 298 ; successful
heading back of an otter by,
315; his experience of trail-
hunting, 316

Collins, Digby, on the treatment
of diseases in the horse not re-
quiring veterinary aid, 101

Coilyns, Dr. Palk, instances
abnormal number of points in
stags' horns, 40

Compensation to farmers, 153

Cook, Colonel, on thorough-
breds compared with cocktails,
170

Corbet, Mr., 248

Corns in horses, IOI

Cottesmore hunt, 229 ; a re-
markable day's work of the,
230

' Country Gentleman's Com-
panion,' 20

Crib-biting, prevention of, 93

Cross-country gallops, 186

INDEX.

365

CUN

Cunard, Sir Bache,
hunted by, 228

country

FAR

his account of the Duke
Grafton's pack, 259

of

DANES, game laws introduced
by, 8

Daventry, 237

Deer, red, cunning and strata-
gems of, 38, 49 ; colour of, 39 ;
growth of horns as determin-
ing age, ib. ; designated by his
points, z$.; examples of abnor-
mal number of points, 40 ; re-
production of horn, ib. ; time
for hunting, 41 ; 'harbouring,'
ib. ; difficulty of procuring
hounds for hunting, 47 ; scent,
49; taking soil, ib. ; running
to herd, ib. ; a hunt of, at Ex-
moor, 55 ; destructive pro-
pensity of, 6 1

Derby, twelfth Earl of, stag-
hounds of, 32

Devonshire, North, stag-hunting
renown of, 32

Distemper in hounds, 127 ;
effect of rounding ears in,

'Si

Dracek, Baronne de, a celebrated
French huntress, 15

Drains, how to construct, for
foxes, 156 ; for otters, 302

Drake family of huntsmen, 251

Draper, Diana, 16

Draper, William, a Yorkshire
fox-hunter, 16

Drawing for hares, 79 ; for foxes,
136 ; for otters, 313

' Druid ' on cross-breeding for
hunters, 170; instance of pro-
phetic instinct in a horse re-
lated by, 206 note ; his de-
scription of Dick Knight, 234 ;

EAR cropping of hunters, 108;
rounding of puppies, 131

Earth, running to, 68

Earth-stopper, duties of an, 151

Earths, artificial fox, how to
construct, 156

Edward the Confessor, a patron
of the chase, 9

Edward III. accompanied by a
hunting establishment in his
wars, 10 ; endeavour of, to
improve the breed of horses,
161

Elizabeth, Queen, a notable
huntress, 13 ; stag-hunting in
the reign of, 36

1 Emblem,' a famous steeple-
chaser of bad shape, 173

England and Wales, list of
hounds in, stag, 321 ; fox,
322 ; hare, 335 ; beagle, 343

Epping hunt, origin of, 1 7

Erme, the, an otter river, 307

' Essay on Hunting,' anonymous,
4, 19

Essex, curious hunting establish-
ment in, 30

Essex, East, kennels, plan of, 1 18

Exmoor, antiquity of, as a royal
hunting-ground, 32 ; charm
of stag-hunting on the, 37 ;
trying nature of, to hounds,
48 ; account of a stag-hunt
with Arthur Heal at, 55

FAIRS, horse, 174 ; purchasing

hunters at, 175
Farmers, compensation to, 4

566

HUNTING.

FEN

Fences, different ways of ridin j
at, 209

Fitzhardinge, Earl, against loud-
voiced whippers-in, 146

Fitzwilliam pack and country,
262

Fordham, George, repudiation of
spurs by, 213

Fortcscue, Lord, 32

Founder, 103

Fownes, Thomas, an early
keeper of foxhounds, 28

Fox, George Lane, his opinion
of hare-hunting, 83

Foxhounds, first regular em-
ployment of, 28 ; dwarf, as
harriers, 74 ; drawing, 136;
losing scent, 139 ; accessible
to Londoners, 275 ; lists of,
in the United Kingdom, 322

Fox-hunting, literary notices of,
24 ; how pursued in the last
century, 29 ; introduction of
present style of, 33 ; com-
parison of past and present,
34 ; the practical work of,
136; by moonlight, 186 ; from
London, 277

Fox, traditionary enmity to the,
26 ; habits of the, 62 ; his
scent, 65 ; his behaviour before
hounds, 66 ; going to ground,
68 ; his trick of thrusting
another fox into the line, 70 ;
hand-reared cubs, 71 ; dietary,
ib. ; mange in, caused by horse-
flesh, 72 ; meeting a pack of
harriers, 75 ; alleged killing of
lambs by, ib. t 154; protection
of game birds from, 73 ; pre-
dilection of, for bogs, 136;
chopping of, 138 ; coursed by
a dog daring a run, 140;

IIAR

habits of, in breaking covert,
145 ; feeling of farmers to-
wards, 154 ; poultry-killing
propensity of, 155 ; construc-
tion of artificial earths for, 156
Frceby Wood, a famous meet at,
218

GARDINER'S ' Hare Hunting,'

20 ; reviles fox-hunting, 25
Cayman,' a queer-looking

hunter, 174
Gelding, when first adopted in

England, 161

George III., stag-hunting by, 31
George IV., at a run from

Aldermaston to Reading, 31 ;

at a famous run in the Cottes-

more country, 230
Gillard, Frank, his remedy for

distemper in hounds, 127
Glossary of hunting terms, 350
Goodwood kennels, cost of, no
Goosey, fox-hunting aphorism

of, 139

Grafton, Duke of, pack of, 259
Grantham, 218
Greene, Squire, 198, 201
Grooming, 107
Grooms, ignorance in, 91
Gurney, Richard, remarkable

leap of, 181

HANDS, 204

Harbourer, work of the, 41

Hare-hunting, literary notices
of, 23 ; instructions for, 79 ;
season for, 82 ; the closing
scene of, ib. ; Mr. George
Lane Fox's opinion of, 83 ;
with beagles on foot, ib.

Harriers, no distinct breed, 74 ;

INDEX.

HEA

dwarf foxhounds used for, ib. ',
occasional killing of a fox by,
75 ; how to breed, ib. ; ken-
nel management of, 78 ;
quarrelsome disposition of, ib. ;
how to be handled in the field,
79; lists of, in the United
Kingdom, 335

Heal, Arthur, Lord Ebrington's
huntsman, 53

Henry I., enclosure of Woodstock
by ,9 ; grants hunting privileges
to the citizens of London, 17

Henry II., 9

Henry III. grants hunting privi-
leges to ecclesiastics, n ;
hunting establishment of, at
Pytchley, 233

Henry VIII., efforts of, to im-
prove the breed of horses, 161

1 1 eythrop pack and country, 254

Ilieover, Harry, his advice on
buying horses, 183

Hill, Hon. Geoffrey, otter-hunt-
ing system of, 293 ; on the
breeding habits of the otter,
298 ; record of sport by,
300 ; curious otter-hunting
adventure of, 315

Hill, Waldron, otter-hunting
system of, 293 ; cross-breeding
of otter hounds by, 312

Hills, Jem, 254

Horn, use of the, 137
Horncastle fair, 175
Horse, the kind of, for Exmoor,
55 ; liability of, to illness in
the stable, 89 ; importance of
sanitary regulations for, 90 ;
a victim of ignorant grooms,
91 ; how stabled at Badmin-
ton, ib. ; treatment of, in
summer, 97; treatment of,

HOU

after coming in from hunting,
99 ; attention to accidenta
injuries in, 100 ; diseases of,
and their treatment, 101 ;
saddling, 105 ; billing, io5 ;
shoeing, ib. ; grooming, 107 ;
the old practice of ear crop-
ping, 108 ; use of, by whip-
pers-in, 147 ; early history of,
in England, 160 ; efforts of
Henry VIII. to improve the
breed, 161 ; great change for
the better recorded by Mark-
ham, 163 ; hunting, 164 ;
colour, 165 ; shape according
to Markham, 166; old and
modern hunters, ib. ; the
thorough-bred, 1 68 ; choice
of animals for crossing, 1 70 ;
judging a hunter by his head,
171 ; shape often a fallacious
criterion, 172; fairs and pur-
chase of hunters there, 174 ;
Tattersall's auctions, 179 ;
examples of high prices for-
merly paid for, 180; buying
from dealers, 183 ; sympathy
of, with his rider, 201 ; his
instinct of danger ahead, 206 ;
different ways of putting at
fences, 209 ; how to be treated
by his rider after hunting,
214 ; first introduction of the
custom of second horses, 221
Hounds, term of working life of,
121 ; breeding and rearing of,
121 ; prejudices on the subject
of colour, 122; dieting, 124;
distemper in, 127 ; life of, in
the kennels during the hunt-
ing season, 128 ; rounding
the ears of, 131 ; securing obe-
dience in, ib. ; Somerville's

368

HUNTING.

HUN

description of a perfect animal,
ib. ; the Badminton Potentate,
133; expenses of a pack, 134;
to be allowed to eat their fox,
140 ; how they should be dealt
with by whippers-in, 142 ;
singing of, in kennel, 150 ; for
otter hunting, 311 ; alpha-

. betical lists of names of, 344.
See also Foxhounds, Harriers,
and Staghounds
Hunting vainly decried, 2 ;
literature of, 3 ; restricted in
favour of the upper classes by
the Danes, 8 ; passion of the
Norman kings for, 9 ; de-
nounced by John of Salisbury,
ib. ; caused suffering to the
lower classes, 1 1 ; practice of, by
the clergy, ib. ; early participa-
tion of ladies in, 12; privileges
granted to the citizens of
London, 17 ; list of animals
formerly appropriate for, 22 ;
first regular employment of
foxhounds in, 28; practised
in the metropolitan suburbs,
29 ; our ancestors' early hours
for beginning, ib. ; time of, for
the stag, 41 ; value of book-
lore in, 109 ; extravagant ex-
penditure not a necessity of,
III ; servants, their duties,
135; horses for, 164; in rela-
tion to riding, 189 ; rareiv
attended with casualties to
ladies, 207 ; from home, only
capable of affording its true
pleasures, 266 ; from London,
271; glossary, 350; biblio-
graphy, 354

Hunts, lists of, in the United
Kingdom, 321

KIN

Huntsman, instructions for, when
drawing, 136 ; use of the horn
by, 137 what to do when the
fox is afoot, 138 ; advantage
of a fine voice to, 145

Huntsman, kennel, duties of a,
148

IRF.T.AND, wild stag hunting in,
33 ; hunting breed of horses
in, 175 ; lists of hounds in,
stag, 322 ; fox, 333 ; harrier,
341 ; beagle, 343

JOB hunters, 283

John, King, import of horses by,

161
John of Salisbury, denunciation

of the chase by, 9

KENNELS, conversion of out-
buildings into, no, 118; must
be dry, airy, and warm, ib. ;
situation of, III ; as near
the house as possible, 112;
plans of those at Billesdon,
113; at Badminton, 117; at
Rivenhall, 118 ; use of whips
in the, 148 ; singing of hounds
in 150 ; lists of, 321

Kennel huntsman, duties of a,

' 148

Kensington Gardens, foxhunting
on the site of, 29

Kineton, establishment of the
kennels at, 249

King, Charles, the Fytchley
huntsman, 235

Kingsley, Charles, on the

INDEX.

KNI

pleasure of hunting
familiar company, 267
Knight, Dick, 234
4 Knightley's Leap,' 181

LADIES, early hunting costume
of, 12 ; hands of, 207

Langley, Edmund de, work on
hunting attributed to, 7

Lawrence, Mr., on the summer
treatment of the hunter, 97

Leamington as a hunting centre,
248

Leap, remarkable, 181 ; position
of the rider in taking, 202 ;
Leicester, 225

Lincoln's Inn Fields, ancient
meets in, 17

Llanwensant, Evan, an otter
hunter, 308

Lbckley, Mr., 29

Lomax, Mr., otter - hunting
system of, 293

London, grants of hunting
privileges to, 17 ; vicinity of,
formerly hunted by the Ber-
keleys, 29 ; hunting from, two
ways of, 273 ; its hard work
as described by Anthony
Trollope, ib. ; lists of stag and
foxhounds accessible from,
274 ; effects of long and fre-
quent railway journeys from,
276 ; hunting the fox from,
277 ; the plan of keeping the
hunters in, 278 ; the alterna-
tive plan, 281 ; hunting from,
on the 'job ' system, 283

Long's Reading feeding meal,

99

Long, William, on whipping-in,
141

NOR
Lord Mayor, hunting with the

hounds of the, 17
Loughborough, 225
Lowther family, connection of,

with the Cottesmore hounds,

229
Lutterworth, 237

MACAULAY, Lord, riding expert

ence of, 178

Macclesfield's, Lord, pack, 258
' Maister of the Game,' the, 7
Market Harborough, 237 ; oxers

of, 238

Markham, Gervase, ' Country
Contentments' of, 18 ; his
praise of the stag, 23 ; on the
chase of the fox, 27 ; records
a great improvement in horse-
flesh, 163 ; his remarks on
hunters, 164

May Fair, ancient meets in, 17
Melton Club, horse selling soirees

at the, 1 80

Melton Mowbray, a point of
vantage for the Quorn, 224 ;
hunting society of, 270
Meynell, Mr., his mastership o f

the Quorn hounds, 220
Milton pack and country, 262
Mostyn, Sir Thomas, 250

NAVICULAR disease, 103

' Nimrod ' on half-bred hunters

past and present, 166
Northampton, 237
Northumberland, fifth Earl of,

stud of, 1 60
Norwich, hunting grounds

owned by the see of, at the

Reformation, 12 .

B B

570

HUNTING.

OAK

OAKLEY hunt, 261
Osbaldeston, Squire, 221
Otter, the, our defective know-
ledge of, 289 ; his habit of
shifting quarters, 291 ; find-
ing in a new neighbourhood,
story of, 292 ; not capable of
living in water, 294 ; neces-
sity of changing streams in
hunting, 295 ; letter from Mr.
Collier on, 296 ; time for
hunting, 297 ; breeding habits
of, 298 ; hunting influenced
by the state of the rivers, 300 ;
instance of migration of, in a
patriarchal fashion, 301 ; arti-
ficial drains for, 302 ; family
life of, as observed by Mr.
Bulteel, 304; arrival of, he-
ralded by the truff, 307 ; po-
pular enthusiasm for hunting,
in North Devon, 308 ; indica-
tions of the course of, 309 ;
scent of, not readily taken by
hounds, 310 ; choice of hounds
for hunting, 311; difficulty of
heading back, 314; trail of,
316 ; terriers, 318 ; how to
bolt, in a narrow underground
drain, 320; hour for starting
the hunt of, ib.

Oxfordshire, South, pack and
country, 258

PARTRIDGE, protection of, from

foxes, 73

Payne, Charles, 230
Payne, Geofe, interlude of,

with a fox \vhi'e hunting hare,

75 ; sale of the stud of, 180
Pheasants, protection of, from

foxes, 73

HID

Plymouth, Lord, horse-buying

vagaries of, 181
Pollard, Hugh, 32
Pope on the court ladies' pursuit

of hunting, 14
' Potentate,' a Badminton hound

of a perfect type, 133
Poultry, compensation claims

for, 155

1 Prince of Wales's day ' in the

. Cottesmore, 230

Provinces, hunting in the, 243

Pytchley hounds, history of the,
232 ; a great day's sport with
the, 234 ; towns in the vici-
nity of the, 236 ; the country
hunted by the, 238

QUITTOR, 103

Quorn hounds, history of, 220 ;
the country hunted by, 225

RAILWAY facilities for hunting
from London, 274, 276 ;
effects of long and frequent
journeys by, 276

Rheumatism in hounds, from the
situation of the kennel, 1 12

Rider, badness in a, described,
184 ; course to pursue in a
strange country, 193 ; awk-
ward, subterfuges of, 195 ;
courage in, ib. ; advice to, re-
specting falls, 197 ; acquire-
ment of a good seat by, 198 ;
position of, in leaping, 202 ;
his hands, 204 ; when to
leave his horse alone, 205 ;
judgment in, 207 ; to adapt
his riding to circumstances,
2io ; to give his leader plenty

INDEX.

371

RIO

of room, 211 ; what to do if
he choose his own line, ib, ;
how to use the spurs, 213 y
how to treat his horse after
hunting, 214

Riot, breaking hounds from, 47

Rugby, 237

SADDLES, 105

St. James's, ancient meets in, 17

St. John, Oliver, on the killing
of the fox, 26

Salisbury, Duchess of, 14

Sandcrack, 102

Scent, deer, 49 ; fox, 65 ; otter,
310; mysteries of, 139, 140

Scotland, lists of hounds in, fox,
333 ; hare, 341

Scott, Sir Walter, on the killing
of the fox, 27

Sefton, Lord, 221

Selby-Lowndes, Mr., pack of,
252

Shakespeare's allusion to hare-
hunting, 24

Shaw, Mr., his account of a re-
markable migration of otters,
301

Sheep, moorland, protection of,
from stag-hounds, 47

Shires, definition of the, 216 ;
hunting in the, 217

Shoeing, 106

Sidney's ' Book of the Horse,'
106

Smith, Assheton, nerve and
pluck of, 197 ; his mastership
of the Quorn hounds, 221

Smith, Thomas, plan of, for the
Billesdon kennels, 113 ; a bad
leap by, 203

* Sober Robin,' a long-backed

STR

hunter, 173; remarkable leap
of, 181

Somerville's ' Chase,' 4, 20 ; on
the situation for building a
kennel, in ; his description
of the perfect hound, 131

Spencer family, connection of,
with the Pytchley hounds,

233

Spurs, use of, 213

Stables, excessive heat in, 89,
92 ; sanitary requisites of, 90 ;
choice of servants for the, 91 ;
how arranged at Badminton,
ib.

Stag, ancient laws for the pro-
tection of the, 38. See Deer

Staghounds for the Exmoors, 47;
breaking them from sheep,
48 ; kennel management of,
ib. ', number of the pa :k, 49 ;
choice of tufters, 50 ; how to
be handled in the field, 51 ;
scenting discrimination of, 52 ;
treatment of, after immersion,
ib. ; causes of truancy in, 54 ;
accessible to Londoners, 274 ;
lists of, 321

Stag-hunting in former times,
2 3> 3 5 national love of, 36 ;
peculiar charm of, on the Ex-
moor, 37 ; season of, 41 ;
choice and management of
hounds for, 47 ; selection of
horses for, 55 ; a day's ex-
perience of, with Arthur Heal,
ib. ; from London, 274

Stamford, Lord, sale of the stud
of, 1 80

Steeple-chasers, conversion of,
into hunters, 169

Stirrups, length of, 202

Strutt, Joseph, his notice of an

372

HUNTING.

SUF

early manuscript treatise, 5 ;
his antiquarian researches, 8
Suffield, Lord, Quorn hounds
removed to Billesdonby, 113 ;
anecdote of, 84 ; his master-
ship of the Quorn hounds,
223

TAILBY, Mr., 223 ; country of,
228

Tar Wood run, the, 257

Tattersall's, purchasing hunters
at, 179

Taunton as head -quarters for
otter-hunters, 296

Terriers, suggested use of, in
hare-drawing, 79 ; valuable
adjuncts to an earth -stopper,
151 ; for otter-hunting, 318

Thomson's verses on fox-hunt-
ing, 24

Thorough-breds as hunters, 168

Thrush in horses, 102

Tollit, Joseph, 258

Tout, James, Lord Fortescue's
huntsman, 32

' Trencher hounds,' 29

Trollope, Anthony, his expe-
riences of hunting from
London, 273

Tufters, choice of, 50

Turberville, George, 7 ; on fox-
hunting, 27

Twici, Guillaume, treatise on
hunting by, 5, 7 ; his division
of animals of chase, 22 ; on
hare-hunting, 23

{ UNKNOWN,' a famous hunter
of bad shape, 172

WHI

VACCIN T ATION for distemper, 127
Voice, the, and its use, 145
Vyner(Mr.), his account of the
Baronne de Dracek, 15

WALNOTH, Abbot, his love of
the chase, 12

Walter, Bishop of Rochester, his
love of the chase, 1 1

Walton, Izaak, on teaching by
books, 204

Warburton, Egerton, 2 ; his
ideal of a good rider, 194 ;
his description of the Tar
Wood run, 256

Warde, John, 235

Warranties with horses, 1 79

Wartnaby Stone-pits, 225

Warwickshire pack and country,
248

Warwickshire, North, pack and
country, 250

Wedgenoke Park, 9

Weedon, 237

Wellington, Duke of, kept a
pack of hounds in the Penin-
sula, 10

Whaddon Chase pack and
country, 252

Whip -hand, not to be raised
while taking a fence, 203

Whipper-in, error of second, in
waiting for stiay hounds, 141 ;
quiet in, while hounds are
drawing, 144; not to occupy
the angle of a covert, 145 ;
voice an evil in, 146 ; neces-
sity of a good mount for, 147 ;
unnecessary interference of,
with hounds, ib.

Whipper-in to staghounds, dutie
of- 54

INDEX.

373

WHI

Wliips, kennel, 148

Whissendine, 227

Whyte-Melville on thorough-
breds as hunters, 1 68 ; on
Irish hunters, 175; his dis-
tinction between nerve and
pluck, 196 ; on different ex-
amples of riding at fences,
209 ; on the Pytchley country,
239 ; on hunting in the Pro-
vinces, 243

William the Conqueror, 9

YAT

Wilton, Lord, on the first regu-
lar employment of foxhounds,
28

Wilton stud, sale of, 1 80
Woburn kennels, no
Woodstock, enclosure of, 9
Wulsig, Abbot, his love of the
chase, 12

YATES, Edmund, his story of a
horsefair, 178

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